
Class 
Book 



l."P 



Copyright U?._ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE 

CHILD AND HOW TO 

STUDY IT 



•Jh&&$o 



THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF 
THE CHILD 

AND HOW TO STUDY IT 



BY 

STUART H. ROWE, Ph.D. 

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PRINCIPLES OF 
EDUCATION, BROOKLYN TRAINING SCHOOL FOR TEACHERS, 
NEW YORK; FORMERLY SUPERVISING PRINCIPAL OF 
THE LOVELL SCHOOL DISTRICT, NEW HAVEN, CONN., 
AND LECTURER ON PEDAGOGY IN YALE UNI- 
VERSITY; AUTHOR OF "THE LIGHTING 
OF SCHOOL-ROOMS" 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 
1906 

All rights reserved 







LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

FEB 2 1906 

,fr Ccupyriffht Entry 
CLASS fyy XXc, No. 

i 3 7&t> 7 

COPY B. 





Copyright, 1899, 1906, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1899. Reprinted 
April, 1900; April, 1903; January, 1905; February, 1906. 



PREFACE 

In so far as the teaching of to-day is superior 
to that of a generation ago, it owes that prece- 
dence largely to a more general observance of 
two fundamental principles. One of these is 
that action is the first law of growth; the other, 
that individuals vary enormously in their capa- 
bilities for different kinds of mental and physical 
action. 

It is these two principles and the many implied 
by them that have called forth this book. In so 
far as action is to be secured from each child, 
the physical conditions and basis of that action 
should be known, not only for the average, but, 
according to our second principle, for each of the 
children. That conditions exist highly prejudi- 
cial to the child's physical development and, 
consequently, to his growth and power to act, 



vi PREFACE 

is evident from a glance at the ordinary school- 
room. That the causes of these obstructive cir- 
cumstances are not to be stumbled upon without 
effort or care is equally evident. There are 
thousands of earnest teachers as well as parents 
who cannot witness the slow progress of a few 
children, the worn, tired faces of some, and the 
listless apathy of others in quiet. For such 
it is hoped the suggestions contained in this 
book may serve as a fairly complete and helpful 
guide to a study of the child's physical basis 
for action. 

It is not expected that a teacher will make 
all the tests here suggested on every child in 
his room. No teacher will have time for that. 
But the tests may be made in a comparatively 
short time, and be of great helpfulness in solv- 
ing some of the individual problems which pre- 
sent themselves to every teacher. In some cases 
the method of experiment admits of an applica- 
tion to all of the children in the room as easily 
as to one, and light is certain to be thrown on 
the power of individuals whose ability had been 



PREFACE vil 

previously over- or under-estimated. This light 
may be of avail to the teacher in leading him 
to a better adaptation of his work to the child, 
or it may lead to the removal of the cause of 
the abnormality, — in either case to the great 
advantage of both teacher and pupil. While 
tests of this sort increase the teacher's burden 
at the moment, they certainly relieve the ner- 
vous strain and worry coming upon him from 
the backward or troublesome pupil. If the child 
has become normal now that the hindrances have 
been removed, or* if the teacher is now in a posi- 
tion to adapt himself to known peculiarities, — 
in either case .the solution of the problem is 
complete. Work may still be involved, but not 
to the degree and not with the worry which 
otherwise would be unavoidable. Far be it from 
the intent of the author to hint that all the dif- 
ficulties to be encountered by the teacher or 
parent are in the realm of the physical. The 
physical side of the child's nature is taken be- 
cause it is get-at-able and is the source of a far 
larger amount of psychical deformity than is 



viii PREFACE 

usually admitted. Any child under question 
should be assumed to be weak or degenerating 
physically, until the investigation has falsified the 
assumption. 

For parents whose time admits of a study of 
their children from the physical side, this book 
is intended to furnish the important data for 
such an investigation. It would seem that they 
would be among the first to interest themselves 
in such studies, though experience would hardly 
justify that opinion. 

The term "practical" is always relative. Great 
care has been taken to include no tests which 
are not thoroughly practical, that is, well worth 
while. 

The subjects treated with the tests suggested 
represent in part a course in child-study given 
by the author in the State Normal School at 
Mankato, Minnesota. This book was originally 
an attempt to supply a text-book which would 
make it possible to devote more of the time of 
that course to experimentation. Since then a 
change in position has led the author to see 



PREFACE IX 

more clearly the advantage of some such guide 
for teachers in a city system. A slight acquaint- 
ance with rural schools would lead one to the 
opinion that here first of all the suggestions of 
this book are needed. 

An attempt has been made to exclude every- 
thing not directly helpful or suggestive in mak- 
ing the studies, compactness and freedom from 
inflation being regarded essential to the useful- 
ness of the book. Where various methods of 
testing have been suggested, the practical and 
non-scientific is in each case recommended, though 
the possibilities of the situation will largely influ- 
ence the choice of tests both as to number and 
kind. 

The order of the chapters has been determined 
partly by their immediate importance to teachers 
and the relative degree of interest shown by stu- 
dents in the subjects treated. The last two 
chapters, however, have somewhat of the nature 
of a summary approaching the subject from the 
standpoint of hygiene particularly. 



X PREFACE 

I wish here to acknowledge my indebtedness to 

Dr. J. H. James of Mankato, Minnesota, and a 

number of others for valuable suggestions and 

help, while to the criticism and cooperation of 

my wife the book owes a large share of whatever 

usefulness it may possess. 

S. H. R. 
New Haven, Conn., 
March, 1899. 



PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION 

When the first edition of this book was printed, 
it was hoped by the author that its usefulness 
might not be limited to the students in normal 
or training schools, for whom it was more espe- 
cially intended. Its reception has proved wider 
than was expected; for, not only has the book 
served as an introductory text-book in connection 
with courses in child-study and observation in 
progressive normal and training schools, but it has 
been used similarly or for reference purposes in 
practically every university interested in the train- 
ing of teachers and has guided many parents as 
well as teachers in their study of peculiar children. 
The book has also been endorsed by the most 
able and eminent school superintendents of the 
country. For example, Superintendent Maxwell 
only a short time ago stated publicly that he 
wished it might be read by every teacher in New 
York City. 



x ii PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION 

In the present edition only minor changes have 
been made, although the serviceability of the 
bibliography has been increased by lines of com- 
ment as to the value of the books or articles 
specified. The author has considered the possi- 
bility of adding materially to the book, but upon 
reflection has decided that it contains already as 
much and more than the busy practical teacher 
can expect to make use of ordinarily. Amplifica- 
tion might tend to finessing at the expense of the 
fundamental. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Introduction i 



CHAPTER II 

Sight 8 

Percentage of defective eyes. — Causes. — Amount and 
position of light. — Print adapted to the eyes. — Straining 
for a nearer view. — Directions for quick, practical test. 
— Test of astigmatism. — Care in making tests. — A more 
accurate test. — Use of Queen's test card. — Test for color- 
blindness. — Reflection from blackboard. 

CHAPTER III 

Hearing 23 

Need of tests. — Difficulty of detecting cases without 
actual tests. — Possibility of cure. — Causes. — Symptoms. 

— The three methods of testing the ear. — Scientific test 
with the watch. — Whisper test. — Tuning-fork test. — 
The record. — A less scientific but more practical test. 

— Significance of tests. —Tests of tone, timbre, and 
harmony. 

CHAPTER IV 

1. Touch 3 6 

Increased power of discrimination possible. — The tests. 

2. Taste 37 

Use of test. — Method of testing. 



xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

3. Smell 3 8 

Development possible. — Tests for smell. 

4. Muscular Sense 4° 

5. Temperature Sense 40 

CHAPTER V 

Motor Ability 4 2 

Importance of self-activity. — Importance for ideas. — 
Importance of overcoming defects. — Causes. — Practi- 
cality of tests. — Directions for test made through play. — 
Tests for quickness of reaction. — Games with lessons for 
teachers. — Significance of tests for physical culture. 

CHAPTER VI 

Enunciation 52 

Conditioned by certain forms of motor activity and 
habit. — Children of foreign parentage. — Deformity or 
disease of organs or centers of speech. — Directions for 
tests. — Principles involved in the improvement of enun- 
ciation. — Getting an apperceptive basis for a sound. — 
Time and care necessary. — Stammering and stuttering. 

— Suggestions for overcoming these habits. 

CHAPTER VII 
Nervousness 62 

Causes. — When nervousness should alarm the teacher. 

— Need of tests. — Directions for tests. — For chorea. — 
Effectiveness of tests. — Nervousness and the individual 
pupil. — Unusual restlessness. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Fatigue 70 

Nature and cause. — Results of fatigue. — Importance 
of tests. — Directions for practical tests. — Symptoms. — 



TABLE OF CONTENTS XV 



Scientific tests. — Results of scientific investigation of 
fatigue in children. 

CHAPTER IX 

Disease 83 

The gauntlet run by the child. — Information to be 
collected by the careful teacher. — Guarding against con- 
tagion. — Conditions aggravating disease. — Cigarettes 
and their record. — Treatment of thin and pale children. 

— Inadequate or irregular food. 

CHAPTER X 

Habits of Posture 93 

Importance of the subject (a) for health, {F) as a key 
to the child's mental life. — Points to be especially ob- 
served : Sitting while (a) writing, (J?) reading and study- 
ing, (V) in conversation. — Standing and mental attitudes. 

— Exceptions. — Tests of standing position. — Sleep. 

CHAPTER XI 

Habits of Movement 105 

Kinds of movement. — The significance of involuntary 
movement. — Tests of involuntary movements. — Signifi- 
cance of expressive movements. ■ — Kinds of tests desirable. 

— Walking. — What to observe. — Further observations. 

— Outward form and inner content. 

CHAPTER XII 

Growth and Adolescence 115 

Interest in growth. — Comparative regularity of growth. 

— Physical development and brightness. — Children below 
normal. — Causes of defective physical growth. — Possi- 
bility of removing causes. — The test of growth. — Tables 



xvi TABLE OF CONTENTS 



of average growth. — The growing season. — Influence of 
sex on growth. — Results of a foolish modesty. — Sex 
hygiene. — One source of danger. — Test questions from 
the standpoint of sex. — Special cases. — Books on sex. 
— Growth during adolescence. — Sensitiveness. — In- 
tensity of adolescent life. — Effect upon the interests of 
the child. — Needs of the girl. — Needs of the boy. — 
Test questions. 

CHAPTER XIII 

School Conditions affecting the Child's Physical 

Nature 146 

A summary. — Site. — Water. — Heating and ventila- 
tion. — Floors. — Furniture. — Light and the sight. — 
Hearing. — Disease and the schoolroom. — Schoolroom 
method. — The school programme. — The school cur- 
riculum. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Home Conditions affecting the Child's Physical 

Nature 175 

Hygiene from the teacher's standpoint. — Important 
questions. — 1. Food. 2. Clothing and care of skin. 
3. Air. 4. Exercise. 5. Sleep. 6. Miscellaneous. — 
Importance and use of questions. — Exceptional cases. — 
Remarks. 

Bibliography 188 

Index 197 



THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 
AND HOW TO STUDY IT 

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

The child is a wonderful being. From his 
first short cry on entering the world to the end 
of his period of development, he opens up for 
us problem after problem and enigma after 
enigma. How does the child regard the things 
which he finds about him? How many of them 
does he take with him into the world of his 
imagination? What mental processes are most 
characteristic and most to be relied upon in 
directing his growth ? These questions and a 
host of others, not only in the direction of his 
mental life, but in every phase of child-life, are 
pressing for an answer. 

Among the most interesting developments 
which have resulted from the recent child-study 



2 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

movement is the discovery of a widespread dis- 
regard by parent, teacher, and school board of 
the child's physical nature. With opportunities 
on every side, we have not made much progress 
in finding out the less evident physical defi- 
ciencies of children, and have even neglected 
the study of the most important means of test- 
ing their physical condition. Let him who 
doubts this answer these questions. Are you 
sure every child in your class can see every 
portion of the blackboard distinctly? Are you 
sure every child holds his book at a distance 
which produces no strain on the eye? Are you 
sure that each of your children can hear every- 
thing said? Are there any partially deaf chil- 
dren in your class? Is the inaction or slowness 
of some of them due to lack of motor ability or 
disease? Do all take in sitting and standing 
the best posture possible? Do you treat all 
children exactly alike in the degree of precision 
required? Have you tried to find out the cause 
of pallor in this face? Has each child been 
taught at home the principles of hygiene most 



INTRODUCTION 3 

essential for health? Do you make any allow- 
ance for different dispositions? Do you know 
the amount of work, mental or manual, done by 
each child outside of school? How much ex- 
ercise does each take? Have you tried to secure 
the best enunciation even from those who have 
some slight defects in the vocal organs? 

To these may be added a list of questions 
calling attention to the conditions which ought 
to exist. How far should the average child see 
ordinary writing on the blackboard? How near 
and how far from the eye should the book be 
held? How large must type be in order to be 
used by the child with perfect safety? How 
many square feet of floor will one square foot 
of window light up under average conditions? 
Does your schoolroom meet that requirement? 
How fast should children grow in each year of 
life? How much school work should the aver- 
age child be able to accomplish at different ages 
without indications of fatigue? What are the 
most evident signs of fatigue? What form of 
chair and desk is most desirable? These and a 



4 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

hundred others are worthy of careful considera- 
tion on our parts. Some of them doubtless can 
be answered by the reader, and yet in some of 
these cases it may be that we are not as sure 
as we think. Only this week one teacher of ex- 
perience and reputation had just made the asser- 
tion that there were no deaf children under her 
instruction, and fifteen minutes later it was dis- 
covered that one of them was quite deaf. Hun- 
dreds of similar cases are on record. Hence 
the question — Are you sure ? 

The design of this book is not to give the 
latest results in each department of child-study 
touching its physical side, but to give teachers 
practical hints which may call attention to some 
physical peculiarities of children, not commonly 
investigated in their bearing on the work of the 
schools, and, it is hoped, lead to some further 
application of common-sense methods to our 
schoolroom work. The results of scientific 
investigations will be included, wherever they 
are likely to be practically suggestive or helpful. 

In view of the importance — the great prac- 



INTRODUCTION 5 

tical importance — of this physical side of child- 
study work, a brief comparison of our educational 
practice with our theory will not be amiss. We 
have too long regarded the child's mental power 
as something apart from his physical life. We 
have comforted ourselves with the thought of 
Milton and Homer when we found that our 
children did not see well, of Caesar when they 
did not hear well, of Gray and Shelley when 
they were pale and sickly. Like the man who 
sent a huge rock crashing over the brink of a 
precipice, we have " hoped for the best." Science 
says that these men do hot represent the aver- 
age ; that it is criminal to go on neglecting the 
study of conditions; that the conditioning power 
of the physical over the mental is all-important 
and demands recognition. 

At this time we are to consider physical con- 
ditions only. These may be classified under 
two heads : first, those offered by the child as 
he comes to school; and secondly, these same 
conditions as modified or intensified by the 
school environment. 



6 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

The normal child brings to school with him 
a well-developed nervous system through which 
he is gathering sense knowledge and asserting 
himself. He has a combination of habits con- 
stituting both his motor equipment for self-ex- 
pression and his disposition or temperament. 
He has strength and health. But all this 
applies to the normal child. An examination 
of our classes is enough to convince us that we 
have very few normal children. In a mother's 
eyes the normal children are all in some family 
more or less remote, and the mother is almost 
always right. Among children there are not 
only varying degrees of health and strength, but 
even the sharpness of the senses varies. Some- 
times a variation in the acuteness of the senses 
is found in the same child. Some children are 
actually deficient in one ear or in one eye with- 
out being aware of it, while quite a percentage 
have a defect in both, which may be a serious 
drawback to them in their school life. Disease 
has rendered others abnormal in their sensitive- 
ness or nervousness. Adolescence brings with 



INTRODUCTION J 

it frequently a restlessness and inability to per- 
form mental work, requiring especial tac£ and 
understanding on the part of the teacher. Ac- 
cordingly, we shall use all means in our power 
to discover these defects and their causes. This 
will necessitate an examination or test of the 
eyes, ears, touch, taste, smell, motor ability, 
temperament, fatigue, record for health both 
past and present, blood supply, food most eaten 
and enjoyed, effects of adolescence on nervous 
system, growth in height and weight, gait, pre- 
vious habits of work, posture in standing and 
sitting, enunciation and voice. We must also 
consider these, as affected by schoolroom and 
home conditions, and that will require a few 
remarks, as to the effect of certain conditions 
such as dryness or dampness, hot or cold 
draughts of air, seating, ventilation, and other 
important features of school hygiene. 



CHAPTER II 

SIGHT 

Percentage of defective eyes. — One of the most 
important practical results which have come to 
light through the present widespread interest in 
child-study has been the discovery that our schools 
have been making weak eyes. Careful records 
have been made in cities of our own country 
and abroad, and it has been the universal testi- 
mony that the percentage of poor eyes in- 
creases from grade to grade. This means strain 
and headaches, unless discovered and attended 
to promptly. The percentages vary according 
to the locality and the home environment of the 
children. The children of the slums frequently 
have eyesight much impaired. A professor in 
a school for the blind in New York City told 
the writer that some of his pupils could see, 
although they had come there almost totally 



SIGHT 9 

blind. As a result of good care and hygienic 
conditions, they were gradually regaining some 
visual power. This variation both in grades 
and in locality makes it difficult to construct 
averages. About twenty per cent of the chil- 
dren in upper grades have some perceptible 
weakness of the eye which may be discovered 
by a careful test. This difficulty is usually 
myopia, or short-sightedness. Probably less than 
three per cent of the children have this defect 
upon entering school. In fact, the young child's 
eye is far-sighted (hypermetropic) and does not 
become normal before a period ranging from 
the fifth to the seventh year. 

Causes. — The causes of defective eyesight 
are poor light, fine print, bad positions, i.e. 
holding the book too near to or too far from the 
eye, tight neckwear, rubbing the eyes, disease, 
cigarette smoking, and unhealthy home condi- 
tions. The effect of school work is headache 
and tired nervous condition making it hard for 
the child to attend successfully to his book or 
the blackboard, and a consequent unwillingness 



10 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

and inability to make the attempt for any but 
a very limited period. The manifestations will 
not be constant, but will show themselves with 
increasing frequency as the child advances in 
the grades. They are effects, not causes. The 
"after-school headache" is another result of 
overtaxing the eye. It is not sufficiently notice- 
able at first to serve as an indication of visual 
defect, but its appearance is serious in its import 
as to the condition of the eye. Bad conditions 
should be discovered in time to avoid their 
consequences. This is particularly true of those 
who are suffering from congenitally weak eyes. 
The evidence seems to point to the fact that 
these especially suffer in their school work. 
They should be guarded by an examination as 
they begin their school life, and the amount of 
work given should be limited to what can be 
done without injury. 

Dr. Risley says that in several cases he has 
known of sudden relapses of choroidal disease 
with an increase in refraction after the strain 
of a written rest or examination and the prepa- 



SIGHT 1 1 

ration for the same, even where the regular work 
of the term had not been harmful. He also claims 
that too much of our school work is done at a 
point near the eyes. The blackboard should 
be used more frequently in the lower grades. 

Amount and position of light. — In searching 
for causes of eye difficulty, it is well first of all 
to investigate our schoolrooms to see if there 
is light enough. We are told that there should 
be one square foot of window for each four or 
five square feet of floor surface; that this light 
should be unobstructed by other buildings or 
trees. It should come over the left shoulder of 
the child, and should be from one side of the 
room only. Where the light is insufficient, the 
blackboards should be covered by light yellow 
curtains when not in use. The window curtains 
should be raised from a roller fastened below the 
window (rather than the reverse, as is usual), in 
order that the light coming from above may cause 
less shadow and that the child may, under no cir- 
cumstances, have to face the bright light. The 
ideal scheme for regulating the lighting is to 



12 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

provide both methods of adjusting the shades. 
Parents frequently allow children to read or study 
at home with the bright flame of a lamp or other 
light glaring directly into the eye. Few eyes 
are strong enough to stand such abuse. Again, 
children are permitted to read in bed, or in 
positions where no proper light can be obtained. 
The schoolroom should be lighted by sunlight, 
but this condition, and possibly one or two of 
the others named, may be found suggestive 
rather of needs than of practical help. The 
practical lesson involved is this : Where we are 
per force obliged to teach in conditions not 
ideal, we should be all the more careful to see 
that every favoring condition possible be given 
the children, and that frequent tests be made 
to discover cases of visual defects which may 
be just developing. 

Print adapted to the eye. — Our text-books 
have not always been guiltless in the print of- 
fered to the child's eye. If you turn to the 
word "Pica" 1 in Webster's dictionary, you 

1 This foot-note is printed in Pica. 



SIGHT 13 

will find a sample of the type which is as small 
as should be submitted to the eyes of young chil- 
dren. The letter is about seven one-hundredths 
of an inch in height. Most persons are some- 
what surprised to learn what a large letter one 
of that size is. The other specimen of type 
illustrated in the same place in Webster is 
" Small Pica" 1 and is about six one-hundredths of 
an inch in height. According to Dr. Cohn the type 
used in our school-books must not be less than six 
one-hundredths of an inch in height, and the lines 
of the small n not less than one one-hundredth 
of an inch wide. The distance between letters 
should not be less than three one-hundredths of 
an inch, and the distance between lines not less 
than one-tenth of an inch. Test your school- 
books and see whether they come up to this 
standard or not. Paper should be non-transpar- 
ent, non-bibulous, without gloss, and not em- 
bossed by type. 

Straining for a nearer view. — Some children 
are so eager and enthusiastic in their reading 
1 This foot-note is printed in Small Pica. 



14 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

that, as soon as a word troubles them, involun- 
tarily they bring the book nearer the eye and 
strain for a closer view of the word in their 
effort to understand. This is likely to lead the 
child to form the bad habit of holding his book 
too near the eye even when no special effort 
is necessary. The eyes should be tested in 
such cases, and in the case of any other ab- 
normal position or movement of the eyes. 

Directions for quick, practical test. — This test 
(which should be made on every child soon 
after he enters school) is really a very sim- 
ple matter, if these directions are followed im- 
plicitly. 

Find out first whether there are any symp- 
toms of eye trouble, as headaches, watering of 
the eyes, red or swollen lids, suppuration, the 
strained look characteristic of weak eyes, and 
reading with the book too close to the eye. 

A child with red or inflamed eyes or lids 
should be required to show a certificate of the 
non-infectious nature of the disease, before he 
is admitted to school. There is considerable 



SIGHT 1 5 

danger of infection in the use of the same 
lavatories, towels, or soap, unless this precaution 
is taken. 

At a nominal price both Snellen's Test Types 
and the "E" chart (for the use of children who 
do not " know their letters ") may be obtained from 
the Secretary of the State Board of Education, 
Hartford, Conn. Hang the chart up in a good 
light. For a quick test of sight, adapted to young 
children on account of its simplicity, perhaps the 
best is this method of using the chart. Have the 
child take a seat twenty feet from the card and 
write down or tell you all the letters he sees at 
that distance with each eye. Both eyes should be 
open and free from squinting. The eye not in 
use must be covered by a card or some object 
held before it. Do not let the child press or 
touch the eye with the hand. It must be open, 
but be kept by a card or other obstruction from 
seeing the chart. If he sees all of the letters 
or more than is expected at that distance, the 
eyes are probably in good condition. If he 
omits some or can only see a very few of those 



1 6 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

that should be seen at twenty feet, he is defec- 
tive and should be examined by an oculist, espe- 
cially if his eyes look strained and he is subject to 
headache. If children do not know the letters, 
let them draw the forms they see, or, better, use 
the " E " chart, having the children indicate the 
open side of each letter by pointing correspond- 
ingly. The Test of Vision for use in schools 
published by Queen 1 may be used in the same 
way as the Snellen for this quick test. 2 

Test of astigmatism. — On the same card 
are to be found the lines for testing astigma- 
tism. Have the child, if vision is nearly normal, 
stand twenty feet from the card. If not normal, 
he should stand where he can see the type for 
twenty feet. Ask him whether any of the lines 
are "blacker" than others. Find out which they 
are. Are they much "blacker"? Do the rest 
run together into a single blur? Most persons 
have some astigmatic trouble, but it is not until 

1 See page 19. 

2 The Jaeger types are hardly necessary as a further test of chil- 
dren. All opticians keep them. Children should read No. 2 with 
ease at twelve inches. 



SIGHT 17 

some of the lines in the test are seen as a blur 
or headache is experienced that it is dangerous. 

Care in making tests. — Care should be taken 
that our tests be as accurate as possible and 
free from vitiating conditions. The blunders 
made even by bright teachers in these tests are 
astonishing. Experience has shown five direc- 
tions to be especially necessary. Hang the card 
in a good light. Keep it clean, free from lead- 
pencil or finger marks. Test one eye at a time. 
See that the other eye is properly covered. Keep 
the card out of sight when not in use. 

A more accurate test. — Although the above 
tests are likely to detect all cases which it is 
possible for the teacher to discover, it is fre- 
quently desired by teachers or parents to take 
more than ordinary precautions to get an ac- 
curate test, particularly where records extend- 
ing over a considerable period of the child's life 
are to be kept, or where scientific results are 
required. Its advantages over the other test 
are summed up in the facts, first, that the 
poorer eye, being discovered usually at the first 



1 8 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

distance, is not helped at the other distances by 
the impressions left when the better eye was 
used ; secondly, that more letters are offered 
for the test; and thirdly, that inaccuracies in the 
types or in their use are more readily detected. 
In using Snellen's test card begin not less than 
sixty feet from the card, test the child's ability 
to read with each eye the type for that distance, 
as before, cutting off the vision of the eye not 
in use with a card or other obstruction held in 
front of it. Then advance to the next distance 
indicated on the card and try each eye at that 
point, and so on. By waiting a moment between 
the tests for the two eyes the letters will be 
forgotten, and you will soon find out which eye 
sees better. If not certain, at the next distance 
begin with the eye tested second at the other 
distance. After that always test the poorer eye 
first. Do not hurry the child, and, if he tires, 
give him time to rest before you finish. If he 
can name none of the letters at the required 
distances, find out what he can see ; but usually 
the eye which does not distinguish most of the 



SIGHT 19 

letters at the required distances (if the light is 
good and the card clean) should be examined by 
a physician. This is a test of keen-sightedness. 
If the eye does not see well, it may be troubled 
with myopia (near-sightedness) or hypermetropia 
(far-sightedness) or astigmatism. The use of plus 
or minus lenses has been advocated to determine 
the nature of the disease, but if the eye has 
been found defective, further investigation can 
be left to the oculist. 

Use of Queen's test card. — If you wish to 
verify your results by another test, or to com- 
pare methods, send for the "Test of Vision 
for Use in Schools " prepared by James W. 
Queen, 1010 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. The 
cost of this is twenty-five cents. The directions, 
which are very clear, will be found on the back 
of the card. This card has the advantage of 
offering a test of accommodativeness. Where the 
fine print of this can be seen beyond the normal, 
the presumption is that the child is far-sighted ; 
if seen nearer than the normal, it is to be pre- 
sumed that the child is near-sighted, though his 



20 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

accommodative power may sometimes falsify this 
conclusion. Being small, the card can be turned 
about readily, and in the astigmatism test, the 
consistency with which the child chooses can be 
tried. 

Test for color-blindness. — Although of less 
frequency, cases of color-blindness do occasion- 
ally explain the apparent stupidity of some 
children before our maps. The percentage is, 
however, small; among men, less than four per 
cent, and among women, less than one tenth of 
one per cent being affected. Therefore the test 
is of less practical interest. In order to discover 
color-blindness in children, colored paper or 
worsteds of some half-dozen tints or shades of 
each color are needed. " Holmgren " sets espe- 
cially prepared for the purpose may be obtained 
of E. B. Meyrowitz, Incorporated, New York 
City. They should be kept carefully, and 
renewed occasionally, if the colors are dimmed 
by handling. Take the children one at a time. 
Select from the set a light green. To a color- 
blind person some other colors may appear only 
as lighter or darker shades of this one. Be 



SIGHT 21 



especially careful not to name the color, as in 
that case the experiment would be likely to be 
vitiated. Ask the child to pick out all the objects 
which are similar in color to the sample though 
of a lighter or darker shade. Try the same test 
with the rose color and the pure red. Children 
who make evident mistakes are probably color- 
blind. 

Color-blindness is sometimes caused by exces- 
sive use of tobacco especially if combined with 
the use of alcoholic liquors. The disease as found 
in the schools being inherited is incurable, and 
allowance must be made in the classroom for the 
defect. No amount of training in color-perception 
is likely to help it. The comparatively small 
number of women affected by the disease is an 
unexplained fact of heredity and seems to have 
some connection with sex. 

Reflection from blackboard. — In most school- 
rooms there are some seats from which a part 
of the blackboard cannot be seen. Do you 
know which they are in your room? Test the 
accuracy of your knowledge in this way. Divide 



22 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

off all the blackboard space into sections of four 
or five feet, labeling them as you do so A, B y 
C, D, etc. Then make a map including each 
seat in the room, and go from seat to seat, sur- 
veying all the blackboard space from each. At 
each seat, enter on your map the letters for the 
sections of the blackboard not clearly seen. Be 
careful to place your head no higher than the 
child's as he sits at his desk. See what effect 
certain common positions of the curtain have. 
If a child cannot see writing on the board from 
a distance at which you can see readily, test his 
eyes. 



CHAPTER III 

HEARING 

Need of tests. — To the teacher who is cer- 
tain that all his children hear well, child-study 
has some interesting data to offer. In the first 
place it has been found that out of several 
thousand school children investigated nineteen 
per cent or, according to other results, twenty- 
five per cent, are somewhat deaf in one ear or 
both. That means one out of every four or five 
in your class or mine. In a given class of fifty 
children at least eight or ten are probably suf- 
fering from some defect in hearing. 

Difficulty of detecting cases without actual 
tests. — One of the worst features about this 
difficulty is the fact that the child does not 
know that he is suffering. He thinks his hear- 
ing is as good as the average. He can hear 
the teacher's voice if he tries, but it is too hard 

23 



24 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

work. So he relapses in sheer self-defense into 
a half-comatose state. His name is more easily 
heard than other things, and, whenever anything 
resembling it is said, he straightens up, listens 
carefully, while the teacher repeats the question, 
makes his reply, and then relapses again. We 
have all been at some lecture on an occasion 
when our seats were just out of easy range of 
the speaker's voice. We listened attentively for 
fifteen minutes, perhaps less, and found our- 
selves conscious of making a decided effort. If 
it were interesting enough, we kept on listening 
for another half-hour. At the end of that time 
we were much fatigued. We leaned back and 
rested, possibly again bending forward as we 
saw some striking gesture, or as some word 
louder than the rest excited our curiosity. But 
at other times we were in a sad state of relapse, 
a perfect counterpart of the dreamy state, in 
which the deaf child finds himself, even though 
by straining he may be able to hear a little. 
It is this that deceives the teacher and leads 
him to the conclusion that the child hears when 



HEARING 25 

he does not. Numbers of confessions are on 
record already — and the list is growing — of in- 
stances in which teachers have found children to 
be quite deaf who had not even been suspected. 

Possibility of cure. — It is an interesting and 
suggestive fact that of these cases of deafness 
less than ten per cent are incurable. A very 
short time is required for the removal of the 
adenoid growths which, though behind the nos- 
trils, are a frequent cause of deafness in chil- 
dren. If one ear only is affected, you will be 
able to place the child where he can use his 
good ear to the best advantage. 

Causes. — The causes of defective hearing are, 
first, such infectious diseases as scarlet fever, 
measles, etc., which cause discharges, producing 
a stoppage of the middle ear, and frequently 
continuing long after the patient has recovered 
from the disease itself; secondly, such diseases 
as nasal catarrh, adenoid growths, and enlarged 
tonsils, which produce a complete or partial 
stoppage of the Eustachian tubes which furnish 
the middle ear with air; and thirdly, blows, div- 



26 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

ing, and extremely loud noises, such as are 
frequently made by children yelling into one 
another's ears. 

Symptoms. — The result of such defects on 
the school life is a dreaminess or inattention, a 
dullness or stupidity (which may entirely disap- 
pear when the child is cured), and a tardy exe- 
cution of commands, since the clew must be 
obtained through the movements of others. In 
many children the degree of the difficulty varies 
at different times. In some it is accompanied 
by catarrh and a tendency to sit with mouth 
open. This habit with the dullness or stupidity 
of the face intensifies the impression and is per- 
haps a surer symptom of imperfect hearing 
than either slowness or dreaminess. Find out 
also whether there has been any pain in the 
ear or any running of the ear. Scarlet fever 
and measles are so frequently followed by disease 
of the ear that they may be counted among 
the symptoms of auditory defect. 

The three methods of testing the ear. — There 
are three methods of testing the ear: first, by 



HEARING 27 

the whisper ; secondly, by the acoumeter ; and 
thirdly, by using the ticking of a watch. It is 
difficult to keep the whisper at the same degree 
of loudness, unless it is made just after a long 
breath has been taken and exhaled until the 
lungs have made their normal expiratory effort. 
The acoumeter is good, and consists simply of 
an apparatus arranged to tap gently on a metal 
bar. 1 Most schools are not equipped with this, 
however. The watch can always be obtained, and 
is very reliable, especially if the "test whisper" is 
used to correct our results. 

Scientific test with the watch. — If scientific 
tests are to be made, or a series of tests extend- 
ing over a number of years, the method is much 
complicated. The course of procedure for the 
watch test is as follows. Great care must be 
taken to see that the room is perfectly quiet. 
Any clock in the room must be stopped. All 
noises, even though distant and faint, must be 
stilled. If the noise is beyond our control and 
continuous, our scientific test will have to be 
abandoned for a more favorable time and place. 

1 Pulitzer's. 



28 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Having absolute quiet, blindfold the subject so 
that he will judge from the sense of hearing 
alone. Cover one ear and have him turn his 
head so that the other will be in a favorable 
position for receiving the sound. Starting at a 
distance at which the watch cannot be heard, 
gradually approach, asking occasionally if he 
can hear. Take the watch in some way con- 
venient to yourself, and always when testing 
hold it in the same position. When you move, 
take care too that you do not ask the child to 
listen, until you have gained the new position 
desired. Move towai'd him, testing at intervals 
of a foot, until you reach a spot where he is 
quite certain he hears the ticking. Then move 
away from him again, and find out how far back 
he can still distinguish the sound of the watch. 
If very far behind the place where he first 
heard the ticking, take the watch a little out of 
range and try again as before. If the sound is 
noticed at about the same point as before, meas- 
ure the distance from that point to the child's 
ear. If not, continue in the same way, until 



HEARING 29 

some nearly uniform results have been gained. 
The time to listen may be indicated by the 
word "now." If some such signal is not given, 
the constant listening produces fatigue and in- 
consistent results. The memory of the sound 
is sometimes a disturbing element, and you may 
be obliged to suspend the trial for a few min- 
utes. On more than one occasion a boy has 
told me, and honestly, that he heard the watch 
when it was beyond hearing distance, and in 
my pocket. It is frequently desirable to muffle 
the watch when near the limits of the child's 
hearing range, rather than change your position, 
as children frequently judge that they ought to 
hear the watch, and therefore that they do from 
the sound of your feet or dress as you move, 
from the proximity of your voice, or from their 
knowledge that you are near. Having tested one 
ear, proceed with the other in the same way. 

Watches vary greatly in the distances that 
they can be heard. The writer has seen some 
that could hardly be heard three feet. Printed 
statements make the difference from two to 



30 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

thirty feet. To find out the degree of the 
child's hearing, each watch must be tested until 
its average distance is discovered. Four such 
trials under like conditions, if the results are 
about the same, will be sufficient for determin- 
ing approximately the normal. 

The methods of using the acoumeter and the 
watch are practically the same. 

Whisper test. — The "test whisper" should 
be used to correct possible errors in the test 
made either by the watch or acoumeter. Some 
ears defective for certain sounds respond readily 
to vocal utterance, while others, satisfactory as 
far as the watch test is concerned, are found 
deficient through the whisper test. In fact, the 
letters are discovered to have different sound 
values, and so it is best in using the whisper 
test to combine them into words, making such 
numerals as fifty-three, forty-seven, sixty-nine, 
etc. The whisper must be uniform, and must 
be given always with the same force. To make 
the "test whisper," draw in a deep breath, make 
just a normal expiration, at the close of which 



HEARING 3 1 

the whisper should be made. This will be nearly 
uniform, and can be heard on the average in a 
perfectly quiet room nearly sixty feet, but the 
normal distance for different voices varies greatly. 1 

Tuning-fork test. — If the ears are found 
defective, sound a tuning-fork and place before 
the bowl of the ear so as to give the best op- 
portunity for catching the air vibrations. Then 
sound the tuning-fork again, and place its head 
on the bone back of the ear. If heard louder 
when placed on the bone, the bone-conduction is 
better. If the reverse, the air-conduction is the 
better, which is the case hi the normal ear. Poor 
air-conduction indicates a stoppage of the ear, 
which may be removed and restore the hearing. 

The record. — Records should be kept under 
the following heads : — 

Name (sex). 

Age. 

Apparent symptoms. 

Distance at which right ear hears watch. 

Distance at which left ear hears watch. 

Distance at which right ear hears voice. 

1 For normal distance under average conditions see page 33. 



32 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Distance at which left ear hears voice. 

Tuning-fork heard best by air or bone conduction — right 

ear. 
Tuning-fork heard best by air or bone conduction — left ear. 
Normal for watch used. 
Normal for voice used. 
Degree of quiet secured. 

A less scientific but more practical test. — The 
preceding mode of investigation has some sci- 
entific value. A simple practical test can be 
made in about one-tenth of the time necessary 
for the above, and be just as useful as far as 
determining whether a child has normal hearing 
or not. The great saving of time is made by not 
trying to secure perfect quiet. In a room just 
moderately still, with the clock ticking and per- 
sons moving quietly about or whispering softly 
to each other, both the watch test and the voice 
test can be made with sufficient accuracy for 
all practical purposes, but the method of pro- 
cedure must be a little different. Place the 
child on one side of the room, facing the wall. 
Have him close one ear as before and shut his 
eyes. Take a position a little to the side of 



HEARING 33 

the ear to be tested, and by a slow arm move- 
ment bring the watch, from a position five or 
six feet to one side, toward the ear. The child 
is to tell you as soon as he hears the ticking. 
If any special noise arises, wait until the dis- 
tracting sound has ceased. Try until the results 
are consistent. My watch, which can be heard 
eight feet in a very quiet room, has a normal 
of about forty inches in our school library, when 
the students are using it. My voice in the "test 
whisper" under the same conditions can be 
heard about forty feet normally. Any diffi- 
culties arising in this practical test must be met 
in the same way as iix the more scientific one. 
But it is surprising how satisfactory the results 
are, even though the conditions in the room seem 
to vary somewhat. The distance can be located 
within limits of one or two inches for the watch, 
and one or two feet for the voice. Of course 
we should know about the normal both of our 
voices and our watches for the conditions under 
which the test is made. This method has been 
indorsed by experienced ear-specialists. 



34 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Significance of tests. — Children will be found 
who can hear at only half the normal distance. 
We are not to understand from this that the 
hearing is half gone, but it does indicate that 
the child cannot hear as readily and distinctly 
as the average, and that he should have the best 
seat possible. Most of the deafness discovered 
is that in which one ear only is affected, and 
consequently a seat favorable to the good ear is 
desirable. As over ninety per cent of the cases 
can be cured, the parents should be urged to 
have the child examined by a physician. 

Tests of tone, timbre, and harmony. — The ac- 
curacy with which children can distinguish tone, 
timbre, and harmony has not been made a 
test for grading pupils with regard to their 
musical ability, and as a rule the teacher has 
trusted that the defectives would be discovered 
incidentally. Those found were then removed 
from the class as absolutely incapable or suf- 
fered to go on, with the caution not to sing at 
all if they could not do better. Child-study 
demands, however, a search for these exceptions 



HEARING 35 

and special treatment, until they may be brought 
to something like a normal appreciation of timbre, 
tone, and harmony. That they may be greatly 
developed is the testimony of most thoughtful 
teachers. Test the power of distinguishing tones 
by asking the child to reproduce notes given 
either by voice or instrument. The defect is 
not in the voice, as is shown by the fact that 
tones not made when called for are hit upon 
in the child's attempt to reproduce others. The 
association between the sound made and the 
appropriate muscular movement is lacking, just 
as even in most good musicians absolute pitch or 
the association between a given note and its 
exact sound equivalent is lacking. The child's 
appreciation of harmony may be learned by ask- 
ing him to select the chords he likes from those 
he dislikes as you strike them on the piano or 
organ. Test his discernment of timbre by strik- 
ing with your knife or pencil different woods, 
metals, and other substances. Does the child 
recognize the sounds peculiar to each? 



CHAPTER IV 

TOUCH 

Increased power of discrimination possible. — 
While there are no remarkable statistics or 
records of children whose school life has been 
changed from despair to brightness and success 
by the discovery and cure of some difficulty in 
the sense of touch, it is known to most of us 
that there are marked differences in the ability 
of different individuals in this direction. The 
examples of astonishing power of discrimination 
for the sense of touch are evidenced by most 
blind persons and are familiar to us all. We 
have no reason to believe that this power could 
not be developed in any child, if occasion de- 
manded, but this training is, of course, unneces- 
sary. 

The tests. — The tests are of less practical 
36 



TASTE 37 

value since our school work draws on that 
sense to so slight a degree. For the best re- 
sults in natural science, however, some ability 
in this direction is desirable. If a child is 
suspected of being below the average, he may 
be easily tested by having him distinguish be- 
tween the degrees of roughness or smoothness 
of different kinds of cloth, of wood, iron, leather, 
etc. It may be made a game in which the 
whole class participate. Of course the eyes 
must be blinded in making the test. 

TASTE 

Use of test. — The sense of taste, like touch, 
is not levied upon seriously by the teacher in 
his class-room demands. That it is capable of 
much development is shown by tea-tasters, who 
can distinguish the slightest differences in quality. 
As a practical test little can be said for the gen- 
eral investigation of the sense of taste. It is a 
matter of interest, however, and will lead the 
children to a more general appreciation of the 
facts, first, that they vary in their power to taste, 



38 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

and secondly, that their ability to distinguish 
differences can be increased by practice. 

Method of testing. — For the test dissolve or 
place in separate glasses of water a very small 
amount of sugar, salt, vinegar, tannin, or quinine. 
Some persons can detect one part of quinine to 
one hundred thousand of water. Have the 
children tell which of the solutions is sweet, 
salty, sour, or bitter, by taking just a spoonful 
of each. Be careful to have your solution very 
weak. Make it so that you can only just dis- 
tinguish the taste of each. Take care to rinse 
the spoon in fresh water after each trial, and 
give the child at least two minutes between trials. 
Stir the solution each time. 

Another mode of testing consists in mixing 
salt, sugar, and spices of various kinds that are 
known to the children, and asking them to tell 
what they can taste in the mixture. 

SMELL 

Development possible. — A notable instance of 
remarkable development of ability to discrimi- 



SMELL 39 

nate odors is given in the following. Dr. Howe, 
in the Forty-third Report of the Massachusetts 
Asylum for the Blind, is authority for the state- 
ment that Julia Brace, a blind and deaf mute. 
could instantly recognize a person she had met 
before as soon as she caught the odor from his 
glove or hand. She was actually employed to 
sort all the clothes of pupils in the institution, 
after they came from the wash. It is said that 
the changes of our northern climate tend to dull 
the acuteness of the sense of smell. Men do 
not detect odors as readily as women, and are 
therefore less likely to notice foul air in the 
schoolroom. 

Tests for smell. — Tests for smell can be 
made by using diluted perfumery, seasonings, 
etc., as in testing taste, and asking the child to 
tell the one from the other by the sense of smell 
alone. Care must be taken that the odor does 
not disappear before you are through with the 
test or game. This test lacks the importance 
from the standpoint of practicality which belongs 
to most of the others. 



40 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 
MUSCULAR SENSE 

In schools where manual training has already 
made its appearance or where drawing is taught, 
it is important that a study be made of the child's 
ability to measure distance by the sensation of the 
muscular movement. At present, however, it may 
be best to test rather by watching the ordinary 
work of the child and then determining whether 
the error was due to inability of muscular sense, 
inability to discriminate with the eye, or care- 
lessness and lack of interest. Ask the child to 
close his eyes and draw a line just the length 
of one you have shown him. Have him open 
his eyes. Can he now tell which is longer? If 
so, the eye gets the length quite accurately, but 
the muscles are at fault in their cue. Find out 
the normal error for each length used. 

TEMPERATURE SENSE 

Test the temperature sense by having the 
children pass to the part of the room in which 
the thermometer is hung with face toward the 



TEMPERATURE SENSE 41 

wall, and tell by their feeling whether it is 
seventy degrees, above seventy, or below seventy. 
If above or below, how many degrees? How 
many can tell by moistening the finger the direc- 
tion of the wind? 



CHAPTER V 

MOTOR ABILITY 

Importance for self -activity. — Modern method 
is insisting on the necessity of self-activity on 
the part of the child, as the essential to its 
development. Though this self-activity implies 
inner life and not alone external activity or 
motor power, its most decided and satisfactory 
evidences are found in actual self-expression 
through the child's motor ability. This is par- 
ticularly true of children in the lower grades, 
and the teacher who fails to recognize this fact 
in practice, if not in theory, is not living up to 
the light of his generation. According to some 
authorities on education, less than a fourth of 
the young child's school time should be spent 
at his seat. All the rest of his work must 
bring in his motor activities. As conservatives 
we may, perhaps, desire that a somewhat larger 

42 



MOTOR ABILITY 43 

part of the self-activity of the child find its ex- 
pression in emotion and inner mental activity 
rather than in actual bodily movement. We 
have already erred, however, by repressing ex- 
pression, and will without doubt have to make 
a large concession to this newer demand. Emo- 
tion which spends itself in a mere play of feeling 
without leading to action will tend to occupy a 
less and less prominent position as the impor- 
tance of self-activity and, therefore, of motor 
activity, receives more and more its due. 

Importance for ideas. — Our ideas of moving 
objects, of form, of position, time, and distance 
are largely gained through the sensations accom- 
panying slight movements of the muscles. If a 
child is lacking in power to make the necessary 
movements with accuracy, his motor ideas will 
be faulty. Some children seem to think quite 
largely in motor ideas, though it is much to be 
doubted if we have motor images to a great 
degree unless our experience with the object 
has usually been of the motor kind. 

Importance of overcoming defects. — But not 



44 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

only must the motor ability of the child be 
known in order to use his self-activity for 
effective training, but the lack of capacity for 
controlled movement indicates sometimes disease, 
usually the need of development, and always 
the necessity for especial direction and encour- 
agement by teacher and parent to counteract 
the effect of unsympathetic criticism by play- 
mates. The boy who moves slowly and handles 
himself clumsily is the object of ridicule among 
his playmates, who nickname him " wooden man " 
or some equally significant term. He does not 
get encouragement from them to overcome his 
fault by extra work and training. His stimulus 
in that direction must come through his teacher. 
If in his school life too he becomes the butt of 
ridicule, what wonder if he does become apathetic, 
still less active, and the more shut up within him- 
self, i.e. the less expressive of his real self. As 
Dr. Beebe says : " Young children when awake 
are eternally and everlastingly busy. Through- 
out the ages mothers and doctors have been, 
and to-day are, promptly suspicious of a child 



MOTOR ABILITY 45 

who mopes or is not doing something. Very 
often the indication of oncoming disease is a 
checking of these motor activities. . . . Have 
you not been told with a sort of suppressed 
pride of the number of pair of shoes Willie 
uses up, and of the socks, trousers, and hats 
that suffer shipwreck? All to the effect that 
the sprightly boy or girl while ruining his father 
financially, is just a little the smartest and bright- 
est child in the block." 

Causes. — The causes of defective motor abil- 
ity are disease, uncleanliness, lack of hygienic 
conditions at home (as insufficient food or sleep), 
fatigue, and too much repression. Of course 
some children are naturally slower than others, 
but that does not mean much slower, unless 
the cerebellum of the child be affected in some 
way by deformity or disease. One published 
case of supposed defective motor ability was 
found to be due to defective sight. The cure 
is in each case removal of adverse conditions, 
and encouragement to make continuous effort 
to improve through practice. Even in cases 



46 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

where the cerebellum is affected, it seems to 
be possible for other centers to do the work in 
part at least, as instanced by the French girl 
who without any cerebellum learned, though late, 
both to walk and talk. 

Practicality of tests. — The preceding intro- 
duction seems at present necessary for a real 
appreciation of the practical value of tests as to 
motor ability. If we are to call upon the chil- 
dren for action, we must know more definitely 
what a child's natural ability is, how quickly, 
how accurately, how gracefully or gently, we can 
rightfully expect each child to move. There 
is a great difference in children. We may be 
inflicting the same injustice and discouragement 
upon a child by requiring too fine work of him in 
writing, that we would by blaming a deaf child 
because he did not understand our questions. 
We want the best of which each child is capable, 
and therefore not the same from all the children. 

Directions for tests made through play. — As 
the first and most important test of motor ability 
and tendency to bodily activity, I know of noth- 



MOTOR ABILITY 47 

ing so instructive as a few days' careful observa- 
tion of the children at their play before school, 
after school, or at recess. There you find the 
real child, and not what he would gladly seem. 
Jot down in a note-book the relative power to 
act of each child with reference to (i) his ten- 
dency or readiness to act; (2) his quickness of 
movement; (3) his accuracy; (4) his force or 
weakness; (5) his gracefulness or awkwardness; 
(6) his gentleness and ability to modify or adapt 
his expenditure of force to the amount of energy 
required for the movement ; (7) persistence in 
action. Try to judge solely from the data the 
children present in their play upon this particu- 
lar occasion, and eliminate all previous estimates 
as to their characteristics. Note not only the 
motor qualities of the children as they appear, 
but also the incidents on which you base your 
judgment of them. There is no greater evi- 
dence of tendency to self-expression through 
the motor activities than play. Miss Sisson, in 
an interesting paper 1 on "Children's Plays," clas- 

1 " Studies in Education," V. 



48 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

sifies the children she observed according to the 
character of their games. A most significant 
feature of her study for motor ability was the 
fact that all the plays carried with them move- 
ment; but more important than that was the 
fact, that one of the divisions of her classification 
consisted of children who did not play very much, 
but found their amusement " in running from 
one part of the yard to another because of some 
passing whim, — over to the faucet to get a 
drink, or over to the sand pile to see what the 
others were doing." "The general quality of 
the plays that held and attracted the children 
was action." If the child does not play, the 
teacher's business is to find out his mode of 
recreation and its value, both in building up 
physical health and in stimulating the child to 
self-expression. 

Tests for quickness of reaction. — These ob- 
servations made from play need to be supple- 
mented by some more exact and uniform tests. 
Arrange the children in groups of not more 
than five. In order that all may be seen at 



MOTOR ABILITY 49 

once, take a position a few paces off. Then 
have them, at a given signal, extend the arm, 
or make some other uniform full-arm movement 
as quickly as possible. Try it two or three 
times and notice the children who always fall 
behind. If you choose, try the quickest and 
the slowest of your different groups together. 
In the same way we may test the quickness of 
an arm or a leg movement, and make it a game 
which will be entered upon with great interest. 
Are your results the same in all the trials? 
Have the children line up ready for a race. 
Who starts first ; who last at the signal ? See 
who can make on paper the most crosses fol- 
lowing the left margin in five seconds. Have 
them begin with the cross at the top of the 
paper and make a line across the page. Then 
repeat the operation, beginning with the next, 
and so on. See how many lines each can draw 
in five seconds. How many in ten. Who draw 
the most. Who the least. A tapping with the 
lead pencil on a sheet of paper in different 
places will test both wrist and finger muscles. 



50 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

See how many dots can be made in ten seconds. 
To investigate the swiftness of the fingers by 
themselves, have the children make, by finger 
movements, as many vertical or nearly vertical 
lines as possible in ten seconds. The fingers 
vary widely according to the age and the nervous 
make-up of the individuals. The average record 
made by twenty-five teachers under almost pre- 
cisely similar conditions was : For the crosses 
uj^ in 5 seconds; for the horizontal line, 20 J 
in 7 seconds ; for the tapping, 41 J in 5 seconds, 
and for the vertical lines (counting each up-and- 
down stroke as one), S7\^ m 5 seconds. 

Games with lessons for teachers. — All these 
tests and many others similar to them may be 
made a game for the children, in which they 
are sure to be interested and to do their best. 
To the teacher it is quite likely to furnish some 
data which may show the point of difficulty 
in some child whose inaction, blundering, or 
awkwardness has been regarded by him and 
perhaps by the parents as pure stupidity or list- 
lessness and punished accordingly, when, as a 



MOTOR ABILITY 5 1 

matter of fact, it was a case of defective motor 
ability needing especial encouragement and in- 
centive -to effort. 

Significance of tests for physical culture. — 
Our schemes of physical culture as carried on 
in the schools would all be a little less systematic 
or uniform and adapt themselves more to the 
motor possibilities of individual children, if they 
had caught somewhat more of the light thrown 
on the children's motor powers by these tests. 
The systems may fit averages, but teachers 
should work with individual children and learn 
their characteristics. Quickness, grace, and pre- 
cision are widely different things for different 
children. We want the best of which each 
child is capable, whether dull and slow or quick 
and bright. 



CHAPTER VI 

ENUNCIATION 

Conditioned by certain forms of motor activity 
and habit. — Although a form of motor activity, 
enunciation has seemed important enough to 
deserve a place by itself. Not many cases of 
greatly arrested speech development are found 
in the schools, perhaps for the reason that we 
will not allow them there, but commonly cases 
of indistinct and childish enunciation do exist, 
which ought to be broken early in life, before bad 
habits both of ear and speech are formed. These 
are frequently the result of imitating the baby 
talk of fond parents, who do not realize that 
their repetition of the child's first feeble effort 
to pronounce a word is simply taking away 
from him the possibility of improving his first 
attempt. Distinct, clear language is all the 
more necessary if the child's ability to imitate 

52 



ENUNCIATION 53 

correctly is limited. At school he should be en- 
couraged to improve as much as possible, since 
he already has some habits of speech and associa- 
tions of sounds, which should be overcome. 

CJiildren of foreign parentage. — The difficulty 
is increased, however, in the case of children of 
foreign parentage, where English is not heard 
to any great extent at home, and some of the 
sounds of English are at apparent variance 
with the vocal possibilities of the children. Here 
all depends on the patience and child-study of 
the early teacher of the children. It has long 
been proved by countless cases that children 
taken early enough to a foreign country have 
no difficulty in mastering the details of pronuncia- 
tion and accent so perfectly as to be practically 
indistinguishable from the habitants whose an- 
cestry has been in that country from time 
immemorial. To acquire desirable habits of 
pronunciation soon enough is then the problem. 
Its solution is to be found only in the study of 
the child early in his school life. Any sounds 
that cannot be made must be tried again and 



54 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

again, until in some word or some connection 
they are brought out. If to the three or four 
years of his life before school three or four 
more are added before any attempt is made to 
find out just what his difficulties are, he will 
never be able to speak his own tongue as he 
should. 

Deformity or disease of organs or centers of 
speech. — The most difficult cases to deal with 
are those in which there is some deformity or 
disease of the cerebellum or other centers either 
of correlation or of speech. The consequence 
is loss of the power of speech ranging from 
the most serious cases to those where only 
certain sounds and combinations are found diffi- 
cult. Even in such cases, however, child-study 
offers a clew, and important results are attained 
with some patience. An instance 1 is on record, 
in which a boy, — whose motor activities at the 
age of twenty months were terribly crippled by 
a fever, — starting when eleven years old with 

1 A case of "Arrested Speech Development," by H. H. Scur- 
lock, Child- Study Monthly, Vol. II, No. II. 



ENUNCIATION 55 

only five words, by careful work acquired in five 
or six months a vocabulary of over three hun- 
dred. It is only through the study of the child's 
actual accomplishment and power in the use of 
his vocal organs that such results are gained. 
First, the basis is obtained ; then, by experi- 
mentation this beginning is widened out, cor- 
rected, and made habitual. 

Directions for tests. — In all these cases our 
chief fault in the schoolroom has existed in our 
confidence of our ability to notice errors and 
correct them in the class-room. The child to 
be examined must be taken by himself and 
asked to pronounce after the examiner a list of 
words containing almost all the common sounds 
and combinations of them. Wherever errors are 
found, they must be noted, and then, as soon 
as the list is finished, a systematic attempt must 
be made to lead the child to the correct pro- 
nunciation. The following list is recommended. 
Some words apparently unnecessary have been 
added as they have from time to time shown 
themselves desirable. 



56 



THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 



cat 


run 


Pig 


bed 


milk 


hop 


jump 


have 


chin 


this 


shall 


awl 


sing 


see 


walk 


tax 


buzz 


book 


me 


out 


call 


yes 


large 


pure 


fur 


eat 


whip 


love 


funny 


kite 


put 


food 


bar 


boy 


is 


fall 


on 


new 


make 


lie 


grass 


oil 


girl 


sail 


quick 


her 


warm 


rope 


hitch 


place 


pleasure 


my 


thank 


boat 


say 


move 


face 


and 


fun 


arctic 



Principles involved in improvement of enuncia- 
tion. — Having chosen the words which are not 
pronounced correctly after a trial or two, we 
must rely upon two principles to help us in 
securing the correct pronunciation. The first 
of these is that the instinct of imitation enters 
into the child's whole life very powerfully. The 
second is the principle that practice increases 
motor power and control. 

Getting an apperceptive basis for a sotind. — 
Some sounds can be heard and attempted for a 
number of days before they are perfected, but 
great help is gained if you can find another 
word containing the same sound this time cor- 
rectly pronounced by the child. For example, 



ENUNCIATION 57 

in one case a child could not pronounce the 
word bar. Every word with this combina- 
tion thought of was tried, but all to no avail. 
In every case the ar was pronounced like or or 
awr. Finally it was remembered that the child 
had been studying about Alabama. This the 
writer pronounced as though spelled Alabama, 
as it had been thus pronounced in the class- 
room by the teacher. The child then by her 
power of imitation reproduced the sound cor- 
rectly, and from that she got bar, car, far, etc. 
Before the list was finished, however, the old 
habits prevailed over the new, and it was neces- 
sary to go back to Alabama and start over. 
She finally succeeded very well. The word 
pleasure was difficult for her, being pronounced 
pezzuh. Please was then tried, but it was 
always peas. She was therefore led to say 
leas until the / was surely pronounced, and 
then given the sound of / followed by the word 
leas. When asked to speak the whole word 
quickly, she pronounced it just as well as any- 
body could, and continued to do so. But for 



58 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

eleven years the child had been allowed to say 
peas. 

Time and care necessary. — A little time for 
the development of the vocal motor organs and 
a little patience and ingenuity will overcome 
most cases. There are few fields where the 
same amount of work will produce more re- 
markable results than in this of enunciation. 
Some care must be taken not to make the child 
self-conscious. The self-consciousness produced 
by the knowledge that his pronunciation is faulty 
or childish leads to a lack of freedom of ex- 
pression and to a dependence, which are fre- 
quently very disastrous. 

Stammering and stuttering. — The speech de- 
fects just treated are of the more common and 
less serious type. About one child in a hundred 
is, however, a stammerer or stutterer, as a result 
either of nervous disease or of bad habits in 
the use of the muscles fundamental to speech. 
The schools and the early speech training at 
home have been blamed for producing these 
defects. Whether or not the censure is de- 



ENUNCIATION 59 

served, it is true that with proper care and 
watching they might be almost eradicated. 

The respiratory, the throat, and the articula- 
tory muscle-series must act together in various 
combinations. If these separate and complicated 
sets of muscles are not touched off in proper 
sequence and with the right intensity confusion 
results, false sounds or no sounds are uttered, 
and the result is stuttering. If through disa- 
bility, mental or physical, either the whole series, 
or one set of muscles, or part of a set is not 
innervated in the motor discharge, a hesitation or 
partial vocal expression ensues which is called 
stammering. This may occur only rarely and 
in connection with difficult phrases only; as, for 
example, in "it sufnceth us." A person would 
hardly be called a stutterer or a stammerer 
unless the defect had become more or less 
habitual. 

Suggestions for overcoming the habit. — Cases 
of stammering, in so far as they can be sepa- 
rated from their hereditary or nervous connec- 
tions, are due to bad methods of speech training 



60 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

and lack of sufficient practice in correct pronun* 
ciation. The remedy is, therefore, greater care, 
both at home and at school, to secure this 
practice. And this endeavor may well be fur- 
thered by toning the nervous system through 
active gymnastic exercise and by proper regard, 
on the part of the teacher, for the laws of 
speech development. 

In cases of stuttering we have a perversion 
of the nervous discharge producing muscular 
spasm. In so far as this habit can be disen- 
tangled from the nervous disorders of disease 
or inheritance, it is due to bad habits of breath- 
ing or enunciating and a confusion of mind, 
which react on the nervous system. Relative 
to the importance of proper breathing, Dr. Hart- 
well says : " Though any one or all of the 
series of organs concerned in producing speech 
may be affected in one who stutters, the respira- 
tory muscles are almost certain to be at fault." 
He states that, as a rule, those most successful 
in the treatment of stuttering " begin their efforts 
with gymnastic exercise of the breathing muscles, 



ENUNCIATION 6 1 

and later on direct their attention to developing 
normal habits of action, first in the muscles of 
phonation, and then in those of articulation." 
The method of procedure is therefore from the 
fundamental to the accessory. It is necessary, 
however, not merely to develop their respiratory 
muscles but to create the habit of always speak- 
ing with the chest well filled. 

To counteract this confusion or state of flutter 
which is peculiar to the nervous side of this 
difficulty, encourage the child to wait until he 
is ready. Reduce his self-consciousness by doing 
nothing to embarrass him and by leading him, 
when practicing by himself, to make some slight 
muscular movement with his finger and hand 
whenever he feels that he is losing his control. 
Not infrequently the cure is comparatively simple. 



CHAPTER VII 

NERVOUSNESS 

Causes. — All of our schools have their quota 
of nervous children ; some of them irritable, some 
of them excitable, all of them restless and im- 
patient of the teacher's next move. The causes 
are almost too numerous to warrant an attempt 
to mention them. Some of the most important 
are insufficient or unsuitable food and irregular 
times for eating it, use of tobacco, lack of sleep, 
fatigue, most forms of disease, heredity, bad air 
in schoolroom, difficulty with school work, shocks, 
nervousness in the manner of the teacher, un- 
hygienic conditions of home, school, or person, 
adolescence, and so forth. The removal of the 
unfavorable conditions will greatly improve the 
situation, but not infrequently a physician will 
have to be consulted, before the real cause 

will appear. 

62 



NERVOUSNESS 63 

When nervousness should alarm the teacher. — 
If the child is naturally nervous and does not 
become more so, we need not be alarmed, but 
must rather adapt our methods to the condition 
of the child. If a child is growing more ner- 
vous than he was previously, we should study 
him and perhaps consult with the parents about 
his home life. 

Need of tests. — Nervous children conspicuous 
to visitors in a schoolroom are frequently un- 
observed by the teacher, who has had an oppor- 
tunity to become accustomed to them. Teachers 
are much readier after your test to agree with 
you in your selection of the nervous children 
in their classes than to pick them out before- 
hand. My belief is that teachers usually center 
on certain ones as the nervous children of the 
class and certain others as absolutely free from 
any such defect. Those in between are not 
classified. To include all and also to act as a 
proof of the accuracy of our observation (not 
to supplant it), we should test the children in 
some uniform way. 



64 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Directions for tests. — The best test I know is 
the command to the children soon after the 
opening of the session to rise and stretch out 
their arms and hands, with palms down, hori- 
zontally in the same plane as the body. Illus- 
trate by doing it yourself. Have them remain 
in this position a moment. Notice the quivering 
and twitching fingers, the sagging thumbs, the 
drooping arms, and you have an indication as 
to the nervous children of your class, though 
there may be some few whom you have not dis- 
covered. These will not be the very nervous 
ones, however, but those who have control and 
energy enough to nerve themselves up to the 
task at hand. It would seem unnecessary to 
state that the children should not know why the 
test is made, nor what is to be striven for. 
Without comment they are to do as the teacher 
does, the record is taken, and work resumed. 
For another test ask them to do the same as 
before, but this time with eyes closed. A 
swaying motion of the body may ensue with- 
out the knowledge of the child. In extreme 



NERVOUSNESS 65 

cases the child might fall, unless told to open 
his eyes. 

For chorea. — For a test of chorea, a most com- 
mon nervous disorder among school children, the 
preceding test may be supplemented by the 
following : Ask the child to raise his hands in 
front of him as high as his head, with palms 
toward you. Are the hands and arms symmet- 
rical or evenly balanced ? Are they free from 
trembling or twitching? If not, signs of marked 
nervous disorder are present. Where you cannot 
determine certainly, try by having the child rest 
its open palm on your palm. Does the hand 
rest easily and naturally on yours, without jerky 
or irregular movements ? If so, there is probably 
no serious chorea. 

Effectiveness of tests. — These tests will elimi- 
nate the personal element in the teacher's judg- 
ment and may awaken him to some cases of 
nervousness which have not hitherto forced 
themselves upon him. When found they must 
be diagnosed and either the cause removed or 
the work so changed and lightened as to bring 



66 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

less strain upon the child. With apparatus and 
with a physician's experience a teacher could do 
much better, but at the expense of an amount of 
time available to few teachers under present con- 
ditions. In short, a more elaborate scheme for 
i 

testing lacks practicality except in the hands of 
a specialist or school physician delegated for the 
purpose. If such an official were available, the 
scope of the investigations suggested in these 
chapters would very properly constitute his chief 
duty, and this book would have its chief value 
in enabling the teacher to work with him more 
intelligently. Until then, the teachers, over- 
worked as they usually are, must do what they 
can single-handed. By careful observation and 
frequent testing they may ward off an occasional 
incipient case of hysteria, epilepsy, or St. Vitus' 
dance ; and will almost certainly be able to re- 
lieve the pressure upon children afflicted with the 
first stages of these neuroses. 

Nervousness and the individual pupil. — Nothing 
can be much more conducive to nervousness than 
the attempt to fit all children to the same mental 



NERVOUSNESS 6j 

groove. The mediaeval scheme of lengthening out 
a man to fit an iron bed of torture by stretching 
him if he was too short, or reducing him to the 
proper size by cutting off a part if he was too 
long, has never met with marked approval. The 
reduction of all children to the same mental 
caliber in attainment or interest is equally culpa- 
ble. Teachers must learn ,the limits of effective 
work for individuals. They must learn whether 
their stimulation of pupils incites to healthy work 
or to worry. Nagging, arbitrariness, impatience, 
lack of consideration result almost always in 
worry or pressure, though individual children 
may apparently resist these harmful conditions 
for a time and even for years. What will prove 
a healthy incentive to work for one pupil will 
be the reverse in another. Consequently there 
is need of a constant study of the individual 
effects of our method of rousing pupils to in- 
creased effort. If the child can be led to an 
interest in his studies for their own sakes, or if 
he feels that the teacher is a co-laborer with 
him, the element of worrying is removed and 



68 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

the child's mental growth and work are healthy. 
It will never do to look for this interest and 
sympathy in the class as a whole. They must 
be sought in each member, and where they are 
not to be found, the causes of nervousness are 
certainly present. 

Unusual restlessness. — -Occasionally a teacher 
finds a whole class unusually restless. The 
reason for it may exist in the fatigue of the 
week or of some particular exercise, or it may 
be too obscure to be determined, though the 
restless condition is perfectly evident. Where 
this unrest exists, the teacher should, as soon as 
possible, dispel it, even at the cost of a school 
exercise. The teacher may have some pleasant 
and profitable exercise or game ready for just 
such an emergency. Let the children have an 
extra but quiet recess, a game, or a story. This 
may be followed in lower grades by a sleeping 
exercise, during which the children rest their 
arms on the desk and close their eyes for a 
few moments. 

Individual children will frequently show this 



NERVOUSNESS 69 

marked nervousness during a single school ses- 
sion. Such a child, taken in time and given 
some diverting exercise, even if he loses some 
of his classes, will be vastly better off than if 
forced, for fear of evil consequences, to hold 
himself in by dint of will. Meet the nervous- 
ness of the class or of the individual at the 
moment it is discovered. Bring about relaxation 
or diversion of one sort or another. If these 
unusual nervous outbreaks are suffered to become 
usual, or if the teacher's eyes become blinded to 
them, great harm may result. 

Most forms of nervousness seem to have an 
intimate connection with fatigue, so that an 
investigation of nervousness will naturally lead 
to this related topic. 



CHAPTER VIII 

FATIGUE 

Nature and cause. — Fatigue, define it if you 
will as feeling, process, or " state," is in its effect 
reduced nerve force. As such it is easily dis- 
tinguished from weariness which, though it may 
be equally deadening as far as any accomplish- 
ment of the tiresome task is concerned, still 
does not necessarily reduce the ability to put 
forth energy. That weariness and fatigue are 
usually associated is a matter of everyday ex- 
perience. Weariness is psychical. It relates 
itself to the interests and desires. Fatigue is 
physiological and is directed especially to the 
nervous and muscular systems. The expendi- 
ture of energy would naturally imply fatigue 
or reduced nerve force, though it is partially 
offset by the lively recuperation of the healthy 

organism. Where this rebuilding takes place 

70 



FATIGUE 71 

rapidly the fatigue is called normal or "tem- 
porary " as distinguished from a more or less 
persistent "permanent," abnormal or "patho- 
logical " fatigue. 

This reduction of the nervous system to a 
permanently diseased state may be due to a 
number of causes. These have been summarized 
in part among the causes of nervousness. Any 
constant drains on nerve force such as lack of 
proper food, outdoor air or sleep, baths, irregu- 
larity of habits, unhygienic conditions of home, 
school, or person, overpressure, disease, over- 
work, 1 studying too hard, 1 confusion, ambition, 
fear of teacher, of dreams, or dread stories, and 
so forth, produce fatigue. Usually children, 
though in great danger, are able to throw it 
off, but the weaker ones and others who are 
assailed by combinations of these causes suc- 
cumb. 

Results of fatigue. — But why study this 
fatigue ? Will not the pupils know when they 
are tired and what to do about it? They may, 

1 Usually the scapegoat of other breaches of physical laws. 



72 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

when it is temporary and marked, but probably 
will not, if it is slight or if it is of the pathologi- 
cal type. In this case a condition is present 
which merits the attention of both teacher and 
parent. The child is in real danger and (as 
far as real accomplishment is concerned) might 
better lose an arm or leg than fall a victim to 
permanent fatigue. He loses power of rapid 
recuperation. Development is checked, if not 
absolutely arrested. The whole "tone" of the 
system is lowered. He is rendered more liable 
to disease and when afflicted is brought to a 
lower ebb of vitality. The recovery of the nor- 
mal self is considered doubtful in these cases. 
Certain it is that it is a slow process not infre- 
quently extending over years, and then success 
only attends the greatest care. 

Importance of tests. — It is a lack of appre- 
ciation of the far-reachingness of these effects 
that has led to a slight reaction against this line 
of investigation and has given rise to the re- 
mark that both we and the children have to get 
tired sometimes. True as that statement may 



FATIGUE 73 

be, in view of the possible seriousness of the 
defect we should find out what children tire 
most easily, and if possible the reason. It may- 
be the beginning of a permanent loss of nerve 
force. It may be the first sign of some insid- 
ious disease. It is surely a danger-signal most 
worthy of notice. Again, the clearness of the 
ideas aroused under our instruction is very de- 
pendent on the child's freedom from fatigue. 
Enthusiasm is almost impossible for any of us 
when we are tired out. Should a child be found 
in such a condition, we must recognize the fact. 
If we cannot remove the cause and therefore 
the fact, the child should be taken out of school 
or his work lightened, until his recovery of him- 
self is assured. All authorities agree that muscles 
exercised after they have reached the fatigue 
point, recover the damage to the tissues slowly 
and, if this is continued, the result is likely to 
be chorea or paralysis of the muscle. We have 
even more reason to know the prostrating effects 
of mental operations continued beyond the lines 
of temporary fatigue. 



74 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Directions for practical tests. — The same tests * 
described under the head of "nervousness" are 
among the best for testing fatigue in a practical 
way, but they should be tried in this case at the 
beginning as well as the close of the school, or 
before as well as after the fatiguing exercise. 
I have detected a decided difference in tests 
made before and after a single severe mental 
exercise. 

Symptoms. — In addition to the tests, it would 
certainly not be amiss for the teacher to glance 
over the class with the symptoms of fatigue in 
mind. These have been fully stated in a very 
suggestive article 2 on " Fatigue in School Chil- 
dren," which is quoted here : — 

" Dangerous fatigue should be looked for, 
when the angles of the mouth are found de- 
pressed (usually denoting bodily pain); when 
there are horizontal furrows across the forehead 
that are not due to transient impressions (prob- 
ably denoting mental anxiety); or when the eyes 
wander or ' fix ' nowhere, the pupils are dilated, 

1 See p. 64. 2 By Dr. Smith Baker, Ed. Rev., XV, p. 34. 



FATIGUE 75 

or when there is fullness, or a blue coloration 
beneath the eyes; likewise when there is seen 
a broad white line encircling the mouth, or there 
are bright red 'blush-spots' on the cheeks or 
neck; when the skin is 'muddy' or hot or dry, 
and the pulse is noted to be unusually slow or 
rapid. With such children, all the bodily posi- 
tions are apt to be awkward and 'lopping,' 
with the head bent forward and the shoulders 
held at different heights; while the movements 
are very generally asymmetrical, forceless, and 
few in number, and are perhaps jerky, or fidgety, 
or irritable, from unnatural increase of reflex 
activity. Also the fingers are apt to twitch, the 
face to be stolid, the tongue to be waywardly 
nimble, or else perhaps absolutely unresponsive 
and inactive, and the speech and voice noticeably 
altered in pitch and volume. . . . Upon inquiry, 
it will be found that he usually sleeps poorly, 
has nightmare, or grinds his teeths, or talks 
much, or 'flops round' while sleeping. Also 
that he emaciates rapidly and easily, and has 
frequent, inexplicable sick-spells; that in the 



76 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

morning he is irritable, cross, and hysterical. 
Investigated more closely still, it often appears 
that such children cannot concentrate the atten- 
tion for any length of time, and cannot associate 
images and ideas well enough to learn much or 
to retain what they do succeed in learning ; also 
that they are mentally irritable and give evi- 
dence, even when very young, of a sense of 
painful nervous tension as well as of 'ill-being/ 
Sometimes they become morbidly dreamy, in- 
trospective, self-depreciative, and may get what 
has been styled a ' New England conscience/ 
whereupon there arises a ' duty stress ' out of 
all proportion to any actual duty present. At 
this point they are apt to become fretful, per- 
verse, sleepless, and to have all manner of 
' morbid fears ' and feelings and, ere long, to be- 
come depressed, hopeless, and utterly lethargic. 
Certainly the danger point is not very far off now. 
For in due time there will supervene what has 
been called the three ' cardinal symptoms ' of 
danger, which all, whether old or young, should 
heed ; namely, a very deep sense of misery in the 



FATIGUE 77 

morning, one or more 'insistent ideas' which 
cannot be thrown off, and finally so thorough a 
wearing-out that the subject becomes anaesthetic 
to his fatigue, — that is, he is so weary that he 
cannot feel his own weariness. Obviously, chil- 
dren should never be allowed, much less com- 
pelled, to reach this condition of abnormally 
dangerous fatigue. If they do become thus en- 
dangered, some one, — parent, teacher, or super- 
visor, — is to blame. Often the home, or the 
1 system,' is absolutely at fault, and the teacher, 
no matter how devoted or skillful, is utterly 
unable to obviate results that are dire." 

Scientific tests. — Scientists have attempted to 
test fatigue in many ways, both varied and in- 
genious. The fact that fatigue expresses a ratio 
between nerve force at the normal and after 
the expenditure of energy makes a mathematical 
statement possible. That those suffering from 
abnormal fatigue suffer the deepest drains on 
their nerve force when put to a fatiguing ex- 
ercise makes it comparatively easy to fix upon 
the most serious cases. It is very doubtful if 



78 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

any one test has been found that is satisfactory, 
but the best may be combined effectively. Some 
of these tests imply that fatigue reduces mus- 
cular power; others that it blunts the senses 
(a matter of much doubt in its first stages); still 
others that it affects the quickness or accuracy of 
mental operations performed. Where the fatigue 
is intense, or in extreme cases, this is true, but in 
cases of slight fatigue and to a certain degree 
in extreme fatigue, the interest or tiresomeness 
of the test, the ability and willingness to throw 
off fatigue temporarily, the effects of practice, 
the desire to excel or to be found peculiar, and 
other influences by the score serve to dampen 
the ardor of the investigator who feels for a 
moment that he has the method; and make it 
altogether probable that a really scientific method 
must combine the best. 

Mosso invented the ergograph and the sphyg- 
mometer. The former measures the muscular 
power of the middle finger as it pulls a spring 
or raises a weight until exhausted. The validity 
of its results is in part affected by the varying 



FATIGUE 79 

force of incentives and by practice. The sphyg- 
mometer registers the force and regularity of 
pulse-beat, but the sensitiveness of the pulse- 
beat to other mental or physical conditions works 
against its absolute reliability as an indicator of 
fatigue only. 

Griesbach and others have used the sesthesi- 
ometer, or touch-dividers, to measure the power 
to determine the distance apart of the two points 
of contact after fatigue. He tried it on the 
tip of thumb, index-finger, nose, on the under 
lip, forehead, and cheek. His results seem very 
satisfactory, though hardly enough so to warrant 
the use of the sesthesiometer test alone. Not 
all the sources of error are removed by that. 

Others have recorded differences in heart-beat 
and respiration or reaction-time. 

In getting at the degree of fatigue from the 
mental side experimenters have tried multiply- 
ing and adding, copying, " taking " dictation, 
writing Greek paradigms, reading of extracts 
with words or syllables lacking which were to 
be filled in so as to make sense, memory of fig- 



80 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

ures, solution of common-sense arithmetic prob- 
lems, and so forth. In some of these fatigue 
is measured by ratio of errors ; in others by the 
diminution in quickness, the nature of the experi- 
ment making one or another appropriate. Here 
the sources of error to which we have already 
referred play an even more important part. 

As for their practicality, it seems hardly prac- 
ticable to introduce such schemes for testing 
into the schoolroom, unless they are manipu- 
lated by a trained investigator who can give his 
whole time to this work. 

Results of scientific investigation of fatigue in 
children. — The scientists have, however, already 
contributed to us some valuable suggestions 
which we may accept as conditionally proved. 

1. The value of the short lesson period. 

2. The value of the change or alternation of 
the, easy and difficult school work. 

3. The great difference in individual children 
in ability to recuperate or to throw off fatigue. 

4. The decidedly exhaustive effects of both 
oral and written examinations. 



FATIGUE 8 1 

5. The very slight drain on the system of 
manual labor. 

6. The necessary reduction of home work to 
an amount which shall not interfere with hours 
of sleep sufficient to restore normal energy. 

7. The strain on the child of learning by heart. 

8. The importance of Monday and Tuesday 
for the best work. 

9. The need of Wednesday as a half-holiday. 
10. The comparatively short permanent effect 

of vacation, and the desirability of shorter, more 
frequent vacations. 

n. The advantage of the morning over the 
afternoon, especially for some pupils. 

12. Rest or recreation periods should increase 
in length as the day advances. 

13. Kemsies believes his tests have demon- 
strated that a child ten to twelve years of age 
should not be in school more than four hours. 

14. Mathematics and foreign languages are 
the most fatiguing subjects, singing and drawing 
among the least. 1 

1 For order of studies arranged according to difficulty seo 
page 168. 



82 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

This is certainly an encouraging array of sug- 
gestions which is by no means complete, but at 
the same time represents quite fully the points 
of contact between the investigations of scientists 
and the needs of the schoolroom. Nor is it the 
least important outcome of the investigation of 
fatigue that we are coming to realize that those 
unfortunates who are suffering from the begin- 
nings of permanent fatigue should be more care- 
fully watched for, and children who have been 
wasted by disease should not be hurried back to 
school by teacher or parent as soon as they can 
stand, but should be allowed to gain their normal 
nerve power first. 



CHAPTER IX 

DISEASE 

The gauntlet run by the child. — Most terrify- 
ing are the percentages showing the death-rate in 
the first five years of the child's life. In Chicago 
statistics for 1894 show that one child out of 
every twenty of five years and younger died 
during this period. In the next five years the 
death-rate was only one out of every one hun- 
dred and seventy-five; the succeeding ten years 
a death-rate of one out of each three hundred and 
twenty-two. During the school age, therefore, 
the children are for the most part strong enough 
to resist death, but this does not imply that they 
are necessarily healthy. On the contrary, the 
terrible gauntlet of disease run by children from 
the time of birth to their sixth birthday has left 
its mark on far more children than those who 
succumbed to it. The sight, hearing, lungs, cir- 
• 83 



84 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

culation, stomach, or even the mind, may have 
been somewhat affected, while the disposition 
of the child may be practically moulded by 
these early experiences. 

Information to be collected by the careful 
teacher. — These conditions the school must rec- 
ognize. Upon these it should inform itself. 
Blanks on which are questions to be answered by 
the parents should be sent home. They should 
ask for details regarding the child's past record for 
health, any effects of disease upon the child, the 
normal rate of pulse-beat, the present state of 
his health, how much and when he sleeps, how 
often, how much and when he eats, what sort of 
food he prefers, and any other points desired 
by the teacher, after he has become acquainted 
with the child. If to the answers of his ques- 
tions are added the results of his motor, fatigue, 
and nervousness tests, the teacher will have 
most important data as to the child's health and 
strength, not at the moment only, but on the 
average. Comparison of the child's record at 
any given moment with the normal is therefore 



DISEASE - 85 

made possible. The first manifestations of dis- 
ease will not then be understood as stubbornness 
or stupidity, but rather as the evidences of the 
imperfect physical or mental conditions which 
really exist. 

Guarding against contagion. — Among the 
diseases most dangerous to children during their 
school life are scarlet fever and diphtheria. 
Children are usually too ill from the beginning 
to come to school, while there is much probabil- 
ity of spreading these diseases, although they 
are transmitted occasionally. It is the duty of 
every teacher to inquire into the child's state of 
health after such an illness, and to see to it that 
school books or any other material handled by 
the child either during his illness or immediately 
before his illness have been burned. Careless- 
ness in dealing with cases where outbreaks occur 
is most serious in its results. In Michigan the 
records kept revealed the following facts : Where 
the case of scarlet fever was not isolated, there 
were over thirteen cases and a little less than 
one death on the average for each outbreak. 



$6 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Where it was isolated there were only two cases 
and a fraction for each outbreak, and only one 
death to about eight outbreaks. About one case 
in twenty results in death. If we can reduce 
the total number of cases, we reduce the num- 
ber of deaths. Almost the same number of 
cases of contagion with only a fractional in- 
crease resulted from an outbreak of diphtheria. 
In this disease, however, about one in five of 
the victims die. So that preventing cases be- 
comes even more nearly equivalent to saving 
life. Teachers should be careful to excuse from 
school the child who does not feel well, espe- 
cially if his face be flushed or his throat sore. 
The causes aside from infection are subtle and 
not to be warded off except by care. Foul air 
tends to produce favorable conditions for infec- 
tion. 1 

In scarlet fever the disease is communicated 
by the poison given out by the bodies of the 
sick. This may occur at any time from the 

1 For regulations governing treatment of contagion in the schools, 
see page 160, 



DISEASE 87 

beginning of the illness to its end. Clothing 
and other things which have come in contact 
with these children will retain their infection for 
years, unless thoroughly disinfected. In diph- 
theria the discharges from nose and throat are 
the greatest source of danger. The breath may 
carry germs a short distance, but they are more 
often carried by the handkerchief to clothing, 
desk, and floor, not to mention drinking cups, 
towels, and so forth. 

Of the other contagious diseases, cholera, 
typhoid fever, and yellow fever are not spread 
very much by schools where a good city water 
supply and well-flushed closets are provided. 
If water from wells, or if closets not connected 
with a city sewerage system are used, the greatest 
care should be taken to keep germs from reach- 
ing the water supply, and to guard against the 
contamination of the school air (and that of 
the closets also, as far as possible). Pails or 
pitchers of drinking water should never stand 
uncovered in a schoolroom. Small-pox is guarded 
against by rigid rules regarding vaccination, and 



88 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

the number of cases reduced to practically 
zero. 

Tuberculosis is one of those diseases com- 
municated by the school, meriting more detailed 
mention. The sputum from infected lungs dries, 
becomes a part of the dust of a room, is inhaled 
by the children. Those most susceptible are 
infected, and the disease spreads. Here is work 
for the school physician. In some cities all 
children afflicted have been excluded. In others 
the pupils diseased have been provided with an 
especial receptacle for the sputum, in the hope 
that the germs may thus be kept out of the 
dust of the room. Usually the remedy has 
been careful sweeping, followed by a careful 
dusting of the room, furniture, and wainscoting. 
This is sometimes made more effective by sprin- 
kling the floors with chopped straw previously 
soaked in some disinfecting solution, chloride of 
lime, for example. Besides this, great stress 
must be laid on the value of ventilation, in par- 
ticular the outlets for the vitiated air, which 
should be near the floor, and should carry off 



DISEASE 89 

the air bearing disease germs, while the incom- 
ing air dilutes and reduces the amount of dis- 
ease-laden air. Common drinking-cups and 
towels should be interdicted. 

Of the less dangerous contagious diseases, the 
germ in mumps is also carried by the breath ; 
in measles by breath and skin ; in skin dis- 
eases generally, including those of eyes and 
scalp, they are rubbed off by handkerchiefs, 
towels, etc., or fall off and mix with the dust. 

Conditions aggravating disease. — Tuberculosis, 
rickets, bronchitis, catarrh, headaches, are aggra- 
vated, if not brought ort, by impure air; chorea, 
by fatigue of the muscles; spinal diseases, by 
bad posture in sitting or in writing; indigestion 
and constipation, by too much restraint and sed- 
entary occupation ; bad eyes by bad positions of 
book, paper, or light ; nervousness, by too much 
pressure, too much worry, and last, but by no 
means least, nervousness in those about them, 
where it is possible that the teacher is at fault. 

Cigarettes and their record. — Cigarette smoking 
is an evil that deserves attention by itself. It 



90 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

tends to nervousness of the physical type and to 
stupidity. An examination made in Chicago 1 
schools revealed the fact that it took the chil- 
dren who smoked longer to make a grade than 
non-smokers. Twenty-five principals were pre- 
pared to affirm that it took two years or longer, 
and twelve that smokers rarely "made a grade" 
in the strict sense. They were shoved along after 
a couple of years because there was no other 
place for them. Much can be done by a teacher 
who has the confidence of his pupils either by 
personal talks or by forming an anti-tobacco 
club. Most teachers are surprised when they 
attempt this sort of thing at the influence that 
they really possess. The direction to change 
clothing where the odor of tobacco is detected 
is also helpful. 

Treatment of thin and pale children. — Some 
children are thin and pale. They lack blood, 
are usually nervous, not infrequently dyspeptic. 
They easily become fatigued, incline to remain 
at home, and read rather than play outdoors. 

l Child-Study Monthly, May, 1897 : " Cigarette Evil in Schools," 



DISEASE 91 

They should be lured out of doors on every 
possible occasion, and not allowed to stay in at 
recess. Some of them should be taken out of 
school until they have gained the desired strength 
and health. Disease, cigarettes, inadequate food, 
lack of sleep or clothing, may be responsible for 
this weakness or pallor. Our health record will 
help in these cases to give the teacher a clew as 
to some of the conditions which may be inter- 
fering with the child's system of circulation. 
The discovery of the cause leaves only its re- 
moval necessary for the child to become normal 
again. 

Inadequate or irregular food. — We have al- 
ready had occasion to notice the effects of 
inadequate food. The strain upon the child 
from this cause, resulting in nervousness, fatigue, 
and other disorders, is worthy of our investiga- 
tion. Several questions deserve an answer. 
Does the child eat a hurried breakfast and then 
rush to school? Does he eat sweet things and 
refuse simple, wholesome food ? To what de- 
gree ? Does he eat cake and candy for his lunch, 



92 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

or does he bring bread and butter? In many- 
localities, especially where the children come to 
school poorly nourished, lunches are looked after 
by the teachers. Bread and butter or fruit should 
be the custom. Where the food is served from a 
common supply contributed by the children, there 
is great danger of spreading contagious disease. 
To lead parents to see the importance of a deter- 
mined effort to have the children ordinarily eat 
such food as is good for them, is difficult but 
worthy of the attempt. Simple, 'well-cooked fare, 
and plenty of it, should be the rule. Change of 
food is also a requisite. Some children, as well 
as grown people, cannot eat certain kinds of food 
with comfort. These kinds are to be avoided. 



CHAPTER X 

HABITS OF POSTURE 

Importance of subject (a) for health. — In study- 
ing different postures of children there is danger 
of leaving the realm of the practical. But, when 
it is remembered that the breathing of some 
children is seriously hampered by bad positions, 
that the circulation of the blood in arms, legs, 
and back is often interfered with, that the spine 
is twisted or bent out of normal position in about 
thirty-five per cent of school children, that the 
stomach is used as a kind of prop, and that the 
ordinary position assumed by the child is any- 
thing but restful and symmetrical, it will be seen 
that there are certain distinctly practical features 
involved in a study of these habits. 

Importance of subject (b) as a key to the child 's 
mental life. — The posture is also significant not 
merely because of its actual impairment of some 

93 



94 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

of the necessary life processes, but because it 
furnishes us indications of habitual modes of 
thought in children. We shall, therefore, have 
occasion to consider posture in this second rela- 
tion, not that we may expect thereby positive 
help in building up mental strength, but that we 
may have for corrective purposes a slight clew 
at least to the child's harmful types of thought 
or attitudes of mind. A disdainful turn of the 
chin and lifting of the head are not acquired by 
a child without mental correlatives. The records 
go to show that with that look, and with that 
turn of the chin, and raising of the head, is an 
attitude of mind which shuts off its possessor 
from sympathetic contact with the world. Will- 
iam Hawley Smith tells of a teacher who with 
downcast face, as though ashamed, said that she 
" taught in the country." He immediately cried, 
" Look up ! Look up ! There are few places of 
influence within the teacher's grasp equal to a 
country school." This posture itself he recog- 
nized as tending to bring about a better mental 
attitude. In the following passage, Professor 



HABITS OF POSTURE 95 

James of Harvard points out the tendency of the 
external posture and movement to arouse corre- 
sponding mental coordinates : " In rage, it is 
notorious how we work ourselves up to a climax 
by repeated outbreaks of expression. Refuse to 
express a passion, and it dies. Count ten before 
venting your anger, and its occasion seems ridicu- 
lous. Whistling to keep up courage is no figure 
of speech. On the other hand, sit all day in a 
moping posture, sigh, and reply to everything with 
a dismal voice, and your melancholy lingers." 

In investigating habits of posture of whatever 
type, our attention should be directed especially 
to the head, the hand, the chest, shoulder, back 
and spine, and any fidgeting or frequent change 
of posture. A balance, symmetry, and ease in 
the position of each member should exist. In 
most of these cases our weakness lies in the 
postures which we allow the children to take. 
Our ideals are low. The attention necessary to 
secure good habits of posture requires unmitigat- 
ing effort on our part. We shirk our responsi- 
bility both in the school and in the home. 



96 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Sitting. — The student in his seat or chair is 
usually engaged in one of three occupations, — 
writing, reading, or conversation. His posture 
may be very good in one of these three, and 
be very unsatisfactory in the other two. Writ- 
ing has been mentioned first because more fre- 
quently is a wrong position taken and maintained 
in writing than in reading or conversation. 

There are one or two considerations which 
belong to all three of these occupations. In 
the first place, the feet of the pupil should be 
able to touch the floor naturally, so that the 
sole of each foot may rest flat upon it. The 
seat should be just high enough for the child's 
feet to reach the floor with the legs in a per- 
pendicular position. The width of the seat 
should be sufficient to come within two or three 
inches of the back part of the knee, and its 
surface should be very nearly horizontal, with a 
very slight slope backward. A support, at least 
for the small of the back, should be provided. 

Writing. — In writing, it is not only necessary 
that the seat be properly adjusted, but it is also 



HABITS OF POSTURE 97 

highly desirable that the desk be properly con- 
structed. I have seen but one desk which met 
the requirements. For some reason, probably 
cost of construction or the conservatism of 
teachers, all school-furniture firms have been 
very slow to recognize the importance of the 
"minus distance," or projection of the desk top 
horizontally over the front edge of the seat. It 
has until recently been considered quite sat- 
isfactory, if a line dropped from the lower 
edge of the desk perpendicularly would meet 
the outer edge of the seat. Unless a boy is 
remarkably stout, he must, to use such a desk, 
necessarily lean forward, straining the muscles 
of the back and interfering seriously with his 
ability to breathe freely. I have no hesitation 
in claiming that we must throw away our con- 
servatism on this point, and that the rule should 
be to make the desk come just as far toward 
the pupil as it can without actually touching 
him. There will then be a " minus distance " 
of not merely one or two inches, as some of 
those whom we would call almost extreme are 

H 



98 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

claiming, but frequently a "minus distance" of 
five or six inches. This will of course necessitate 
either a folding desk top or a sliding cover. It 
should also be possible to raise or lower the 
desk until the arms rest easily upon it. 1 

Children used to write with their sides toward 
the desk, the right arm wholly and the left 
partly supported by it. This position raised the 
right shoulder and caused the left shoulder to 
droop, destroying all symmetry and tending to 
cause lateral curvature of the spine. The child 
should face the desk directly, resting both feet 
squarely on the floor, and supported by them 
and his chair. The arms and hands should be 
on the desk, thus tending to push back the 
shoulders. If this posture is taken, the head 
will be erect, the arms will offer a support, the 
chest will be easily filled, the shoulders will be 
on a level, the back will be straight, and the 
position can be maintained for some consider- 
able time without much fatigue. 

1 Such a desk, with a minus distance of three and a half 
inches, has been described by Dr. Shaw in the Child- Study 
Monthly, Vol. I, page 226. 



HABITS OF POSTURE 99 

Reading or study. — In reading, the position, 
as far as the seat is concerned, has already been 
described. Care should be taken that the eyes 
do not get too near the book and that the head 
does not fall forward. Slipping down in the 
seat tends to flatten the chest and to bend the 
spine. This is especially tempting to the child 
when the seat is too high. It should be possi- 
ble to raise or lower the seat as well as the 
desk. The school-furniture firm appealed to the 
sympathetic experience of teachers when it 
advertised, "Oh! you would wiggle too." In 
general, the attempt of the child to assume an 
unbalanced and unsymmetrical position in its 
seat is an indication of some mal-adjustment of 
either external or mental conditions. 

The fatigue due to general overwork or to 
maintaining the same position too long, without 
yielding to nature's demand for change, will 
lead the child to assume a bad posture uncon- 
sciously. Among the effects of weariness of 
this sort is the tendency to let the body sink 
forward upon the stomach. The hard-working 



100 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

student or farmer will both show in their pos- 
tures the marks of the fatigue peculiar to their 
habitual occupations. 

The writer has for a number of years observed 
in himself and others on whom he has tried it, 
the increased ability to concentrate the mind on 
mental work, if the body leans forward. If you 
are skeptical, try it the next time you find your 
mind wandering. Set the feet squarely on the 
floor. Bend forward so that the elbows may 
rest on the knees, and your power of concentra- 
tion will be doubled. 

In conversation little direction is needed, as 
the student will naturally change his position. 
In fact, we all do so as often as we feel con- 
scious of any discomfort. Watchfulness is 
needed here to prevent lounging. One cannot 
be sprightly, bright, or at his best in conversa- 
tion, without taking an erect posture with head 
up, chest out, and shoulders level. Physical 
relaxation implies mental relaxation. 

Standing. — In standing rather than in sitting 
we see the habitual modes of thought of the 



HABITS OF POSTURE IOI 

student finding expression. The boy whose 
head is erect, who stands up like a "major," is 
evidently self-confident, is conscious of his 
power. The boy with head sinking forward is 
conscious of weakness, a weakness which may 
be either mental, physical, or moral. Similarly, 
bent or stooping shoulders would indicate an 
attitude of mind submissive to burdens. Sway- 
ing hands, arms, or body would indicate lack 
of self-control. 

Exceptions. — Due regard should be given 
exceptions, and protest should be made against 
the measurement of all students by averages. 
Thick lips on the average betoken vulgarity. 
But what is true of the general cannot be as- 
serted of the individual case. Hands which 
become blue and cold even in mild weather are 
frequently accompanied by some physical or 
mental defect. That this is always the case 
does not follow, and care should be taken not 
to imply this. Though it may be true that 
abnormal physical development in certain direc- 
tions usually indicates defective mental develop- 



102 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

merit, it is important in each individual in- 
stance that both teacher and parent take nothing 
for granted, but regard these physical peculiari- 
ties as hints of possible mental defect or pe- 
culiarity. That this interrelation between mind 
and matter is only normally true, we know from 
hundreds of exceptions. That these weaknesses 
of the child's physical and psychical nature 
give way before studious and wise treatment, 
has likewise been shown again and again. 

Test questions of standing position. — In order, 
however, to give the best possible external series 
of habits, that we may have the best internal 
attitudes, let us look to the positions which the 
children commonly take in standing. Is the 
head erect, not bending forward, and not ele- 
vating the chin ? Do the hand and arm fall 
easily into their positions without swaying and 
without movement ? Are the shoulders thrown 
back ? Is the chest thrown forward ? Is the 
back straight ? Is the abdomen unduly promi- 
nent, or does it fall within a straight line dropped 
from the chest? Is the position on the whole 



HABITS OF POSTURE 103 

symmetrical ? Is the weight on both feet ? Are 
the feet together and the knees straight? Is 
the position restful, free from uneasy move- 
ment ? 

The antithesis comprising opposite character- 
istics is seen in the typical loafer, who, leaning 
up against a building, with head falling forward, 
chest flat, one shoulder higher than the other, 
with back bowed, the knees bent, and the 
weight on one leg, furnishes a picture present- 
ing a low stage of physical, mental, and moral 
development. 

Sleep. — As about a third of our time is spent 
in sleep, the habitual postures taken there must 
naturally have some effect. In the main, of 
course, there is fairly complete relaxation, but 
at the same time we must provide for free 
breathing, and the easy circulation of the blood. 
We must give the heart easy action, and not 
weigh down or constrict different parts of the 
body. The head should be a little raised so as 
to reduce the pressure of the blood on the 
brain. Plenty of fresh air should be provided 



104 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

without any possibility of draughts. Breathing 
is much easier when lying on the side. 

An occasional change of the reclining posi- 
tion is desirable, and should become habitual. It 
will lead us to adapt ourselves to special condi- 
tions either physical or purely external. It is 
unwise, were it possible, to make the child keep 
one posture while asleep. 

Lying on the right side gives the heart freer 
action. It also relieves a congested or enlarged 
liver and a full stomach, while the flatulent stom- 
ach is eased by reclining on the left side, or 
more satisfactorily by an erect posture. 

An educator of note, having determined to 
break up a tendency toward round shoulders, 
slept for several years with a pillow under the 
small of his back, thus paying a tribute to the 
power of habit, even in its operations during 
sleep. The results were good, though it is prob- 
able that the posture necessary to produce them 
might have worked injury to weaker physiques. 



CHAPTER XI 

HABITS OF MOVEMENT 

Kinds of movement. — Tendencies have already 
been touched upon in the chapter on motor 
ability. It remains to emphasize more particu- 
larly types of habit, which may have fixed 
themselves upon these motor tendencies. The 
movements of the child may be thought of as 
spontaneous or involuntary, and expressive or 
voluntary. 

The significance of involuntary movement. — 
Nature has provided the child with a complex 
system of reflex movements. These are very 
uniform, and consist almost entirely of funda- 
mental life processes. As such they are of less 
practical interest, as they can hardly be improved 
upon, and, unless it be during adolescence, they 
lack especial mental significance altogether. 

The young child, groping after knowledge and 
105 



106 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

seeking new combinations of nervous action, is 
impelled by instinct at first, and later by reason, 
to move different parts of his body. Some of 
the resultant movements are found pleasurable or 
useful, are repeated, and fixed as habits; others, 
leading to no particular advantage, are not made 
again except by accident. 

Some habits, previously supposed to be the 
result of random motor combinations, have been 
found to be due to some advantage presenting 
itself sub-consciously. The seemingly useless 
habits of scratching the head, stroking the beard, 
pulling the mustache, rubbing the forehead, gum- 
chewing, pressing the eyes, tapping the nose, are 
examples of a large class which tend to irritate 
branches of the fifth nerve, and so increase the 
blood-supply of the brain through the carotid 
arteries. The gustatory branch of this nerve is 
also stimulated by mastication, or by the smoke 
of cigar or cigarette. Marey has proved that 
mastication accelerates to a rather marked degree 
the flow of blood through the carotid artery. 
These arteries not only supply in one of their 



HABITS OF MOVEMENT 107 

branches the face, scalp, and salivary glands, but 
through their internal branch enter the brain, 
which also receives blood through the vertebral 
arteries. Similarly, the ends of the nerve in the 
mucous membrane of the nose respond to the action 
of snuff by increasing the cerebral circulation. 

Tests of involuntary movements. — Our inter- 
est in these and similar involuntary movements 
centers in the desirability of the movement. Do 
they interfere with the child's health? Do they 
offer obstructions to his free development men- 
tally, morally, or physically ? The large number 
of nervous, twitching movements indicative of 
chorea, 1 incipient or well-advanced, must be 
counted among the most dangerous of involun- 
tary movements. 

Significance of expressive movements. — Among 
the purposive and expressive habits of movement 
are to be included first of all those of the facial 
muscles, of the head, arms, and shoulders espe- 
cially, while the legs and feet contribute much 
to expression, particularly in connection with the 

1 See chapter on nervousness, page 65. 



108 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

other parts of the body in walking. That ideas 
tend to movement has already been pointed out. 
If this be the case, the habits formed must have 
especial significance. Since, too, there is less 
consciousness of self in action than in holding 
a stationary position, we should expect rather 
in movement, than in posture, to find the freest 
play of the mind's expression. This relation be- 
tween ideas and movement has been recognized 
by at least one school of physical culture and 
oratory, which has enthusiastically insisted upon 
real enthusiasms, real purposes, before any at- 
tempt at expression is allowed. The same is true 
of the old Roman school of Quintilian, who advo- 
cated perfection of knowledge and of character 
as the requisite of the perfect orator. A sunny 
face seldom hides a dreary life, a sullen face 
seldom a happy, hopeful disposition. We should 
study the faces of the children for what they 
reveal of character, and the other forms of move- 
ment for what they will indicate as to the child's 
habitual attitude of mind toward the problems 
of its world. 



HABITS OF MOVEMENT 109 

"The young recruit is 'appy — 'e throws a chest to suit; 
You see 'im grow mustaches ; you 'ear 'im slap 'is boot." 

In the opinion of science, the phrenologist 
would not be very successful in his results, 
if limited only to the bumps or peculiarities of 
skulls ; but when confronted by faces, the ex- 
pression of which in many lines represents usual 
habits of thought, emotion, and volition, it is not 
strange that some of his guesses should be suc- 
cessful. Add to this a number of movements, 
be they only those involved in entering the room 
where the phrenologist is, or in taking a position 
near him, each movement representing a certain 
efficiency and power or the reverse, and the mys- 
tery has disappeared. 

Kinds of tests desirable. — Accordingly our 
tests for habits of movement must be not so 
much for those movements which are most 
healthy from the physical standpoint, but rather 
for those expressing the child's fundamental 
attitude of mind toward the world. Is it hope- 
ful? Is it sympathetic? Does it expect good 
from others ? Does it express purpose, deter- 
mination? Is it honest? 



1 10 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Walking. — The ability to control and move 
the finger with a greater or less degree of vari- 
ety, precision, and rapidity, is said to be indica- 
tive of a greater or less degree of intelligence. 
However, the interpretation of various habits of 
movement, especially in finer muscles such as 
those of the face and fingers, offers a basis of 
judgment only to the expert observer, and then 
within certain limits. The functioning of larger 
muscles admits of readier investigation, and de- 
partures from the normal or the ideal are more 
marked. The most practical study is found in 
the carriage of the body in walking, though par- 
allel studies of other forms of movement will 
suggest themselves. 

In walking we have a number of types. Here 
is the large, growing, uncontrolled, awkward boy, 
who waddles along. Another, smaller, thinner, 
less healthy, seems almost to sneak. A shuffling 
gait bespeaks the careless, irresponsible, ambi- 
tionless boy, while other gaits are characterized 
by their aimlessness, by their abandon, or, to 
look on the better side, by their directness, 



HABITS OF MOVEMENT III 

straightforwardness, their springiness, their firm- 
ness or ease. In one type of child the head 
hangs forward, the shoulders droop, the chest 
is flat, while in walking, the back is slightly bent, 
and the head and shoulders lead. In the car- 
riage of some children the head is erect, the chest 
out full, but the abdomen is made prominent and 
leads, whereas others are marked by the almost 
perfect ease, grace, and power of their movement. 
What to observe. — The home training and that 
of the school may have in part interfered with 
the expression of the inner state of mind through 
the gait, but in the main we find very varied re- 
sults even where apparently similar conditions 
have existed. We must look first of all for bal- 
ance or symmetry 1 of the parts of the body, 
secondly, for strength or force of movement, 
and thirdly, for energy and activity. If any one 
of these three is lacking, the probabilities are that 
the mind itself also needs a corresponding energy, 
symmetry, or force. 

1 This cannot be expected to be perfect, if the child is growing 
rapidly. 



112 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Further observations. — The balance or sym- 
metry of the child may be shown in his bear- 
ing, as he walks. Again, it may be observed 
in his sports and recreations, which may well 
be studied for data along the same lines. 
Again, the playground, the choice of forms of 
recreation, and the spirit in which they are 
entered upon are very significant of the real 
habit and attitude of mind peculiar to the child, 
and underlying not only his strength and force 
of movement, but his energy and activity also. 

On the playground, however, no opportunity 
for controlling and training the child is offered, 
his movements are very complex, and only semi- 
habitual as compared even with those involved 
in walking. Nor will the child's gait prove 
inconsistent in its meaning with his choice of 
exercise and his demeanor in it. The same 
character underlies both. And, though we are 
unable easily, as teachers, to enlist more activity 
and force in his play, we can in some degree, 
at least, introduce them into his gait in walking 
and his recreative or physical culture exercises. 



HABITS OF MOVEMENT 113 

They are under our direction. We should see 
that they make possible mental symmetry, men- 
tal force, mental activity. 

Outward form and inner content. — Were it 
impossible to affect the mind through the body 
and its habits of movement, these questions 
could be of no practical value; but we have 
learned that military training and even ordinary 
drill not only cause boys to appear more 
manly, but really lead them to a higher degree 
of manliness. They are not only rendered 
apparently obedient, but through the external 
movement they have imbibed a respect and 
esteem for obedience itself. Children have been 
encouraged by common consent to put pennies 
in the contribution-box, even before they could 
have any real conception of the meaning of the 
act. Let the habit once be secured, and the 
meaning, the content, will fill in itself. This 
is simply an application of the racial principle 
of development, — that custom precedes moral- 
ity. But still wider in its application is the use 
of imitation as a stimulus both to movement 



114 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

and corresponding intellectual activity. We 
know that the hopeless, sad child can be made 
more hopeful by leading it to more hopeful 
forms of activity, by giving it association with 
more hopeful children, and by assisting the 
desired ideas to find lodgment either through 
or in company with their outer expression. 



CHAPTER XII 

GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 

Interest in growth. — One of the most interest- 
ing topics to parents is that of growth. Each is 
anxious to compare his child with others as to 
height and weight and brightness. Perhaps one 
reason for this is the fact that growth is one of 
the evident points of comparison. The mother, 
too, can be proud of her own children's develop- 
ment (or imagines she can) without boastfulness 
and conceit. There is, however, another and 
more serious reason for the importance of a 
study of the child's growth. This will become 
more evident after a brief explanation. 

Comparative regularity. — In spite of the fact 
that the extremes both in the height and weight 
of children are widely different, it is still true 
that the normal or average height and weight, 
and especially the normal increase for each year, 

"5 



Il6 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

are very closely approximated by the height 
and weight of the average child. This is so 
true that any irregularity in the growth would 
indicate bad conditions. This growth of the 
body is in its order practically stable, and varia- 
tions in the time for each sex are not great. 
It is also coordinate with a development of the 
mind. A new physical accomplishment carries 
with it a correspondingly new field of mental 
activity and development. 

Physical development and brightness. — It has 
been claimed that the taller and heavier chil- 
dren are the brighter, and some figures would 
seem to bear this out; but that there is any 
causal relation between the two seems very 
doubtful. It is more probable that the same 
good conditions of nutrition, rest, freedom from 
disease, care, and undue toil, which promote 
bodily growth most markedly, also develop a 
nervous system capable of activity and endur- 
ance. These same good conditions are, perhaps, 
responsible for the significance frequently as- 
signed to girth of chest, as an indicator of 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 117 

growth, and it is doubtless true that a certain 
correspondence between mental achievement and 
the girth of chest does exist on the average. 

Children below normal — But interesting as 
these facts are to those whose children fulfill the 
requirements of the standard, they are still more 
significant and important for the child who falls 
below the standard. Interruptions to growth are 
not so easily made up as we might believe. 
"As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined." A 
scar always remains a weak spot. The growth 
is never perfect there. Diseases affecting the 
teeth of children leave a permanent deformity. 
If a child fails to attain its normal physical or 
mental growth at any given period, it is not rea- 
sonable to suppose that it will make up this 
deficiency without a permanent loss of some 
kind, though it may not show itself in weight 
and height. 

Causes of defective physical growth.— -Dr. Bay- 
ard Holmes has classified the obstructions or 
interruptions to normal physical growth as fol- 
lows : first, inadequate food and clothing; sec- 



Il8 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

ond, injuries and diseases; third, over-stimulating 
or under-stimulating environments ; fourth, artifi- 
cial restraint ; and fifth, untimely toil. To these 
should be added racial influence, which is rather 
persistent, and in some cases, notably the Japa- 
nese, quite marked in degree. 

There exists at present no satisfactory data 
for demonstrating scientifically the obstructive 
importance of each of these conditions except 
where race, disease, and bad nutrition are con- 
cerned. The others have so much of reason- 
ableness, however, that we may well anticipate 
scientific data with our tentative results. Some 
of our best studies of growth have in part failed 
because they have given too little considera- 
tion to these other possible, if not actual, influ- 
ences. 

Artificial feeding in infancy, and in later life 
the use of baker's bread among the poor, foods 
" prepared for sale and not for use," and the 
inadequate clothing of the poor are prominent 
causes of stunted growth over which we have 
little control without arousing public sentiment. 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 119 

In wealthy families frequently no better results 
are obtained, because the child is so often al- 
lowed to select the food which pleases him most, 
rather than what is "set before him." The 
teacher's attention has already been called to 
this by the questions she would ask regard- 
ing the child's past record for health as pointed 
out in the chapter on diseases. 1 

In the same chapter, attention has already 
been called to the terrible ravages of disease 
in the first five years of a child's life. In the 
records of Germany for 1892, almost twenty- 
three per cent of the deaths for that year were 
among children less than one year old; in Sax- 
ony, almost thirty per cent. The maximum 
power of resistance to disease is found from 
the sixth to the twelfth year. The percentages 
of deaths are, therefore, not so appalling for 
the school age, but the large number of sequels 
to the ravages of these diseases in early years 
are found in their traces as shown by defective 
sense power and over or under sensitive nerve 

1 Sec pages 84 and 91. 



120 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

development. To show how to search for these 
disease effects has been one of the aims of the 
previous chapters. The accidental injuries of 
children are even more difficult to guard against, 
but such practices as boxing or pulling the ears, 
and in less orderly homes indiscriminate punish- 
ment, deserve especial mention. 

The child of the cities, with his quick wit 
and untimely slyness, is an example of over- 
stimulation, and very frequently we are deceived 
into thinking him more remarkable by judging 
his age from his size. He frequently seems 
several years younger than he really is. He 
is almost always short, whereas the hard-work- 
ing and hard-worked boy from the country is 
only partly saved from a similar stuntedness by 
his usually superior conditions for nutrition and 
freedom from restraint. The pampered city 
boy or the lazy and idle country boy alike suf- 
fer from under-stimulation. 

Happily, modern methods and child-study 
have led to a more general recognition of the 
necessity of activity both for mental and physi- 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 12 1 

cal development, and we can feel that our schools, 
and our homes as well, are freer from that arti- 
ficial restraint which formerly made children 
so self-conscious, priggish, and nervous. 

Dr. Holmes pays especial attention to the 
last in his list of causes of obstruction to physi- 
cal growth, namely, untimely toil. He shows, 
first, that the children are not needed economi- 
cally ; secondly, that they are working for practi- 
cally nothing; thirdly, that the exacting hours 
soon use up the vital forces, stunt the growth, 
and benumb the mind and conscience. The 
truth of this will be affirmed by any teacher 
who has had to deal with children of this sort. 
He asserts that "child labor is probably the 
most dreadful interference of child growth out- 
side of underfeeding from which the next gen- 
eration of this republic now suffers." His 
conclusion is one which must appeal to the 
heart of every educator : " A life free from 
want, care, and toil is necessary for the mental 
and physical development of the child; and 
since the physical stature is not complete be- 



122 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

fore the nineteenth or twentieth year of life, 
every child is entitled to nineteen or twenty 
years of youth free from toil." 

Possibility of removing ' causes. — The impor- 
tance of our tests of growth is not merely of 
interest, in that we may search out causes, but 
it is also heightened by the fact that almost all 
of these causes may be removed. Inadequate 
food and child labor can and must be made 
impossible by proper social conditions, which it is 
the business of those interested in the training 
of youth to insure, as society tends toward its 
reorganization. The hindrance represented by 
disease must be met by increased education 
along the lines of hygiene, and the employment 
of physicians, not to cure, but to prevent illness ; 
and improper environment, by removing causes. 
Artificial restraint can be almost entirely done 
away with by more professional training of 
teachers, while the over-stimulating or under- 
stimulating environments of children can only 
be relieved by a general education and en- 
lightenment of man as to conditions necessary 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 1 23 

for the enjoyment of their right to freedom of 
development. 

The test of growth. — In order that a teacher 
or parent may fulfill his duty in removing ob- 
structions to the growth of the child, it is first 
necessary to know where they exist. This 
would imply a knowledge of the height, weight, 
and girth of chest normal for his age, and also 
the knowledge of the child's actual measure- 
ments. The test will, therefore, consist merely 
in determining the height, weight, and girth of 
chest, and comparing the same with the normal. 
Where the children fall short, a search should 
be made for the causes. The classification made 
above will serve as a guide to these. If possi- 
ble, they should be removed, before permanent 
or serious injury results. 

Tables of average growth. — Below are arranged 
tables for normals for height, weight, girth of 
chest, and average deviations from the normal in 
height, and girth of chest, representing the growth 
of children in different parts of our country. They 
are as authoritative as any that we have. 



124 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 



Table A. For Height 

Showing the average American height mathematically calculated by 
Dr. Fratiz Boas from the data of 45,151 boys and 43,298 girls 
in the cities of Boston, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Worcester, Toronto, 
and Oakland (Cal.); also the absolute and the percentage annual 
increases of same. {Printed by permission of G. Stanley Hall, 
editor of the Pedagogical Seminary.) 



8. 


rt 

V 



6 2 
ll 


Boys 


> 

V 

ja 




6 2 

ft 


Girls 


> 

rt 

V 

« . 

g 

S 



J a. 


u 

,0 • 

Hi 


c 2 
v £ 
3 5 Ml 


« S G 

j- es >-, 


18.8 

> « e 


1 V 

2 § 

3 C t/> 

5 11 


u 


5 
61 
7h 
8| 

9 
ioi 

12h 

135 
141 
152 
16& 

*7\ 

181 


1535 

3975 
5379 

5633 
553i 
5i5i 
4759 
4205 

3573 
2518 
1481 

753 
429 
229 


41.7 

43-9 
46.0 
48.8 
50.0 
51-9 
53-6 
55-4 
57-5 
60.0 
62.9 
64.9 
66.5 
67.4 


2.2 
2.1 
2.8 
1.2 
1.9 

1-7 
1.8 
2.1 

2-5 
2.9 
2.0 
1.6 
0.9 


5-3 
4.8 
6.1 
2-5 
3-8 
3-3 
3-4 
3-8 
4-3 
4.8 

3-2 

2.5 
1.4 


1260 

3618 

4913 
5289 

5132 
4827 

4507 
4187 

341 1 
2537 
1656 

1171 

790 


41.3 

43-3 
45-7 
47-7 
49-7 
5i-7 
53-8 
56.1 
58.5 
60.4 
61.6 
62.2 
62.7 


2.0 

2.4" 

2.0 

2.0 

2.0 

2.1 

2-3 
2.4 
1.9 
1.2 
O.6 
0.5 


4.8 

5-5 
4.4 
4.2 
4.0 
4,1 
4-3 
4-3 

3-2 

2.0 
1.0 
0.8 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 



125 



Table B. For Weight 

Showing the average American weight, mathematically calculated 
from the data of about 68,000 children in the cities of Boston, 
St. Louis, and Milwaukee ; also absolute and percentage annual 
increases of same. {Printed by permission of G. Stanley Hall, 
editor of the Pedagogical Seminary.') 



















Bovs 


Girls 


Age 


<L> « 


1 V 


S3 

is! 

C rt w 


•2 . 

bJ3 M on 
rt TO T3 

< 2p< 


1 V 

« s 


2 « « 

3 t/i O 
C rt M 
c U u 


6£ 


45-2 






43-4 






7\ 


49-5 


4-3 


9-5 


47-7 


4-3 


9.9 


8 5 


54-5 


5-o 


10. 1 


52-5 


4.8 


10.0 


9h 


59-6 


5-i 


9-3 


57-4 


4.9 


9-3 


io| 


654 


5-8 


9-7 


62.9 


5-5 


9.6 


ill 


70.7 


5-3 


8.1 


69-5 


6.6 


10.5 


I2| 


76.9 


6.2 


8.7 


78.7 


9.2 


13.2 


133 


84.8 


7-9 


10.3 


88.7 


10.0 


12.7 


142 


95-2 


10.4 


12.3 


98.3 


9.6 


11.9 


152 


107.4 


12.2 


12.8 


106.7 


8.4 


8-5 


i6| 


121.0 


13.6 


12.7 


112.3 


5-6 


5-2 


I7l 








"54 


3-i 


2.8 


I8| 




1 .... 


1 •- 


114.9 




■ 



126 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 



Table C. For Girth of Chest 1 

Showing the average girth of chest midway between expiration and 
inspiration for each age selected from elaborate tables made by 
William Townsend Porter on about 30,000 St. Louis children ; 
also the absolute annual increase and the percentage annual 
increase. {Printed by permission of Dr. William Townsend 
Porter.) 









Boys 








Girls 




M 


E 








t 








>> 














J 

O 


■8 

V 

.a 


£.5 


1 V 

4) l- Ul 
£ O D 

3 C£ 


§:!§ 

u rt >-, 


1 

O 

.a 

eg 

1-2 


s. <J <\ 

< u.s 


1 V 

§£ 

a 5 $ 

111 


4) « 

tow 
w *-* 

c c S 

'— ° 

i* -, •_ 

A W ° f 


6 


677 


23.24 




.... 


741 


22.97 






7 


1708 


23.87 


•63 


2.7 


163 1 


23.41 


.44 


1.9 


8 


2095 


24.48 


.61 


2.6 


2040 


23-94 


•S3 


2.3 


9 


2120 


25.16 


.68 


2.8 


1966 


24.61 


.67 


2.8 


10 


1997 


25.80 


.64 


2.6 


1893 


24.81 


.20 


.8 


11 


1732 


26.47 


.67 


2-5 


1654 


25.92 


i.ii 


4-5 


12 


1565 


27.07 


.60 


2-3 


1624 


26.89 


•97 


3-8 


13 


1228 


27.80 


•73 


2.7 


1313 


28.07 


1.18 


4-3 


14 


925 


28.85 


1.05 


3-8 


1020 


28.79 


.72 


4.0 


J 5 


498 


30.14 


1.27 


4-5 


659 


30.23 


1.44 


3-6 


16 


205 


3i-!9 


1.04 


3-5 


397 


31.04 


.81 


2.7 


17 


80 


32.04 


•85 


2.7 


206 


3I-65 


.61 


2.0 


18 


31 


33- 2 7 


1.23 


3-8 


162 


31.67 


.02 


0.1 


19 


82 








82 


3I-I4 






20 


66 








66 


3 l -7* 







1 " Obtained by adding the girth of chest at full inspiration to 
the girth of chest at full expiration, and dividing by 2 " 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 



127 



Table D. For Deviations in Height and in Girth of Chest l 

Showing the probable deviation from the average height and girth of 
chest computed in inches from tables made in centimetres by 
William Townsend Porter on more than 30,000 St. Louis chil- 
dren. (Printed by permission of Dr. William Townsend 
Porter?) 



Probable Deviation in 
Height 


Probable Deviation 1 in 
of Chest 


Girth 


1 
e 

> 

M 

V 

J 
g 

fa 

< c« 


E 
1 

u 


■ 



E 

V 

.2 

O 

"8 
14 

V 

,2 

1-2 


O 


& 

I 

</> 

■8 



u 

V 


pq 


U 


M 

"3 
O 


6 


709 


±i-34 


780 


±1.35 


677 


±.87 


741 


±.98 


7 


1850 


1.42 


1791 


I.48 


1708 


.94 


163 1 


•97 


8 


2223 


i-53 


2193 


I.46 


2095 


•92 


2040 


•94 


9 


2205 


1.48 


2122 


I.5I 


2120 


•99 


1966 


1. 00 


10 


2087 


i-S7 


2053 


I.60 


1997 


.87 


1893 


1.05 


11 


1819 


1.67 


1772 


I.76 


1732 


1.03 


1654 


1.20 


12 


1653 


1.76 


1732 


2.06 


1565 


1.16 


1624 


1.28 


13 


1268 


1.96 


1322 


2.15 


1228 


1.22 


1313 


i-39 


14 


925 


2.20 


1085 


2.03 


925 


1.41 


1020 


1.44 


IS 


490 


2.49 


680 


I.58 


498 


1.48 


659 


1.46 


16 


189 


2.31 


420 


1-59 


205 


1.65 


397 


1.29 


17 


78 


2.02 


206 


I.36 


80 


1.24 


206 


I.3I 


18 


29 


1.96 


164 


i-33 


31 


1.16 


162 


1.27 


19 






85 


i-59 






82 


i-35 


20 






79 


1.21 






66 


1.09 



1 " Obtained by adding the girth of chest at full inspiration to the 
girth of chest at full expiration, and dividing by 2." 



128 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

These averages are made up according to 
the number of children on which data are 
furnished by each city. In Table B, Bowditch 
furnishes records for 24,500 children from 
Boston; Porter 34,500 from St Louis; and Peck- 
ham 9600 from Milwaukee. The agreement 
between the figures is not as uniform as might be 
expected. 

Tables A, B, C, and D furnish valuable means 
for the comparison of measurements of a given 
child with the normal for our country. Where 
the child falls very much short of these, either in 
actual size or the rate of growth, an investigation 
of the cause should be made. It should be re- 
membered that the interest of this investigation 
is not based on the final size of the child, but on 
the search for influences harmful to his mental 
development. A retardation in physical growth 
may be made up by a later acceleration, but the 
cause of that retardation, if allowed to go on, may 
lead to stunted mental development of greater or 
less seriousness. Bad conditions are most quickly 
indicated by departures from the normal rate of 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 1 29 

growth. In general the degree of deviation, 
which is common and perhaps of no serious 
moment, is very slight, as indicated by Table D. 
When the child has inherited a smaller frame, but 
the rate of increase remains about normal, some 
variation from the average may be of little 
significance. 

Two facts are worthy of attention : first, that 
the figures for boys and girls are quite different, 
especially at the age of adolescence; and sec- 
ondly, that the variations from the average for 
each age are inconsiderable. This appears in 
Table D. 

There seems to be evidence 1 also that there 
is a falling off in the nervous power of the child 
at about the seventh and eighth years. He is 
more easily fatigued. This is due probably to 
the fact that the increase in the size of the heart 
muscle does not correspond to the rapid increase 
in height and weight at that age. 

1 See Bryan in the American Journal of Psychology, Vol. V, 
page 123 ff.; and Gilbert in Studies from the Yale Psychological 
Laboratory, Vol. II, page 63 ff. 



130 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

The growing season. — It is true that the physi- 
cal growth of children is much more rapid during 
the summer than in the winter, the latter period 
suggesting the period of hibernation for animals. 
Spring and early summer include the time of 
increase in height ; the latter part of the summer 
and the fall for growth in weight. The shooting- 
up and the filling-out season for vegetation cor- 
respond quite closely to man's periods of rapid 
growth. 

Influence of sex on growth. — The normal growth 
is also affected by bad practices arising through 
the growing consciousness of sex. To this the 
boy especially is exposed. This hindrance to 
growth might have been treated under the head 
of injuries and disease, as it is a habit which 
may lead to both. It deserves, however, as long 
as we allow the present ignorance on the sub- 
ject, a special place. 

Results of a foolish modesty. — The ordinary 
forms of play, aside from the promptings of his 
own nature, tend to acquaint the boy with him- 
self. Unless he has been previously warned in 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 131 

a decided way of danger from that source, he 
may easily become addicted to habits from which 
a little fatherly or even motherly counsel would 
have shielded him. This counsel is, owing to a 
modest but imprudent shrinking from a manifest 
duty, usually given, if given at all, too late. It 
is the duty of the parent to lead the child to 
confide in him, to forestall his difficulties, and 
to make it not only possible but easy for the 
child to come to him. It is a standing shame 
and menace both to the health and morals of 
our American youth that the child is left to 
learn through debased and bad-minded associates 
that which should come from a pure and trusted 
source. In the meantime, through sheer igno- 
rance, he is exposed to evil habits. 1 

Clark University in the East and Stanford 
University in the West have of late entered on 
a campaign for the study of sex and of sex 
hygiene. Not only has the general ignorance of 
boys on such matters, except as gained through 
their coarser playmates, been condemned, but it 

1 See bibliography, page 198. 



132 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

has also been shown that a wide ignorance of 
the normal growth and development of sex exists 
even among adults. It has also become clear 
that a very large percentage of children have no 
readiness to confide in their parents on these mat- 
ters. A large number of women have testified 
both to their ignorance of the meaning of the 
changes in their own lives, and even to their 
attempts to check the menstrual discharge, which 
they considered an abnormal condition. Similar 
testimony has come from men, showing that a 
lack of knowledge of normal sex phenomena and 
hygiene is very frequent. The common recourse, 
in lieu of the confidence in the parents, has been 
to quacks, who have made those who were per- 
fectly normal in all their symptoms pay large sums 
for the cure of terrible maladies which existed only 
in the imagination. Mr. Lancaster, in a recent 
article, makes what is practically an exposure of 
their methods and their success. There are eight 
firms in this country which print advertisements 
intended to arouse in the uninstructed a morbid 
fear of sex disease. Symptoms which belong to 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 1 33 

normal development are cited as indications of 
disease. The replies are pooled and sold to 
quacks. One broker told him that he had in 
stock 705,000 medical letters of this sort. The 
victims are hurt psychologically more than physi- 
cally by such impositions. The mental tortures 
suffered for years by individuals of perfect health 
as a result of these misplaced confidences are 
striking evidence of the permanent warping and 
stunting of the mind resulting from our neglect 
to provide instruction in this direction. 

Sex hygiene. — The Italian Dr. Marro, in a 
recent work on " Puberty," is right in saying 
that proper emphasis, in talking with the child, 
of the pain attending child-birth is sufficient to 
remove any tendency toward lascivious thought 
which the child might have otherwise. The two 
widely divergent ideas cannot live together. A 
serious scientific explanation must have a bene- 
ficial effect. 

Dr. Marro insists on four points as of especial 
importance in sex hygiene, namely, good nutri- 
tion, physical exercise, proper clothing, and 



134 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

healthy mental environment (Societa). He em- 
phasizes in connection with these bathing and 
work. It seems hardly necessary to emphasize 
the importance of good nutrition and proper 
clothing in this country, though persistence in 
eating unwholesome foods, and lack of instruc- 
tion as to what foods may be taken during the 
menstrual period, are quite general, and tight 
lacing is still practiced to a considerable degree. 
Vigorous exercise turns the new vital force into 
healthy channels and acts as a general tonic. 
There is an unhealthy tendency in our country 
for our youth to enjoy seeing instead of partici- 
pating in athletics. The bicycle has done much 
toward giving both young men and women 
healthy physical exercise, and it is looked to by 
the Italians as one of the means of emancipat- 
ing their women. But it is needless to say that 
the humpbacked candidate for spinal curvature 
should be discouraged. 

The best mental environment for adolescents 
is a timely subject for consideration. Dr. Atkin- 
son reports that in Springfield, Mass., the chil* 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 1 35 

dren in the first year of the high school, fresh 
from the tutelage of the grammar schools, read 
much more wisely than the seniors, presumably 
because the latter read more of the current hit- 
or-miss literature and less of standard works. 
His figures corroborate a vague feeling pervading 
most high school teachers. Healthy associates, 
healthy books, and a healthy home are the 
essentials for a satisfactory mental environment 
of the adolescent. 

Work or constant employment is one of the 
important features of sex hygiene. It takes the 
adolescent from himself, and tends to widen out 
his interests and ideals. It is strange that 
parents do not more generally see to it that 
their children are always interestedly employed. 

In the same way bathing should be looked 
after. Specific directions and even supervision 
are desirable, until good habits have been formed. 

One source of danger. — Little attempt has been 
made to secure for the girl some immunity, at 
least, from the pressure of school work at the 
monthly periods. There is abundant testimony 



136 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

both from physicians and the sufferers them- 
selves to the fact that the lack of consideration 
during these periods has brought a vast amount 
of ill. 

The girl is naturally self-conscious. She is 
usually ambitious and unwilling to receive a low 
mark. Frequently a number of her teachers are 
men. These facts combine to lead the girl 
beyond her strength. 

This problem should be met by teachers. 
Some provision must be made by which a whole 
or partial easing up of school work may be 
secured temporarily without embarrassment to 
the applicant. Where a physical instructress is 
employed, orders to the effect that Miss Blank 
should be excused for the time being from such 
and such work, might very properly emanate 
from her. Where there is no such teacher, some 
one of good judgment in sympathy with the stu- 
dents should be appointed for this especial duty. 

Test questions from the standpoint of sex. — 
The most important questions from the stand- 
point of sex in the light of the preliminary dis- 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 1 37 

cussion are : Has the child a normal, healthy- 
knowledge of sex from a trusted source, or has 
he or she only the morbid, immoral suggestions 
of it derived from coarse playmates? Can he 
confide in his parents ? Does he have the right 
physical environment for sex hygiene as repre- 
sented by nutrition, physical exercise, bathing, 
and clothing? Does he read good books? Has 
he good associates? 

Special cases. — Teachers as well as parents 
have been puzzled by children that are bright 
and active one day, stupid and immovable the 
next. Periodical attacks of stupidity, dark 
rings under the eyes, a desire to be alone, 
nervousness, inability to meet the teacher's eye, 
and especially a tendency to stay in bed in the 
morning without cause are symptoms of evil. 
None of them, however, carries proof of bad 
practices with it. In general, the teacher can 
only assert that something is wrong, and advise 
that a physician be consulted. A principal or 
parent can frequently, however, invite confidence 
and secure it to the very great benefit of the boy. 



138 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Books on sex. — In the bibliography of this 
chapter some reference has been made to 
books intended to bring this matter before boys 
and girls in a refined and helpful way. None 
but a strictly scientific treatment seems adequate 
or to be absolutely without offense, but the 
modesty and probable helpfulness of the books 
mentioned seem to be worthy of especial 
commendation. 

Growth during adolescence. — Not only have 
parents been unwise in neglecting to teach the 
child of sex early enough, but we find both in 
parent and teacher a rather marked blindness 
to the real nature and far-reachingness of the 
changes of adolescence. Some of the more ob- 
vious of these, such as the change in organs, 
menstruation, the enlargement of the larynx, the 
elongation of the vocal cords, the growth of the 
beard, and the changes in form both in the boy 
and the girl, have all been noted, and the general 
thought has been, that with them the enumera- 
tion of the peculiarities of the adolescent period 
was completed. These changes appear so gradu- 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 1 39 

ally during the decade given over to adolescence 
that those of far-reaching significance which at- 
tend them have almost entirely escaped notice. 
It is difficult to distinguish between the physical 
side of adolescence and the mental. As the 
physical has its chief meaning in the mental 
changes, those which are most evident and 
closest in their connection with the physical will 
be touched upon. A study of the figures al- 
ready given will show that there is a marked 
difference in the growth of girls as compared 
with boys in the first part of the adolescent 
period. The girl begins to shoot up rapidly 
from the ages twelve to fourteen, usually surpass- 
ing the boy of the same age, while the boy's 
period of rapid growth is rather from fourteen 
to sixteen. Although it may not be fair to say 
that this has not been noticed, it may be said 
fairly that nothing has been done in the way of 
adapting our school conditions to this difference 
in growth. Some have gone so far as to claim 
that boys and girls should be taught in separate 
schools during the adolescent period. Whether 



140 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

this be the wisest solution is open to question, 
but that different plans adapted to the varied 
needs and interests of each should be worked 
out is hardly to be doubted. 

Sensitiveness. — Aside from our short-sighted- 
ness in this particular, we have failed also to 
note the increased energy and tendency to activ- 
ity of the child during this period, the tendency 
to wander and even run away, the liking for 
solitude, the apparent irresponsibility, the ten- 
dency of heredity to assert itself strongly at this 
period. During adolescence, the heart increases 
in size. The arteries become nearly a third larger. 
The skin takes upon itself a greater sensibility, 
while the sense of sight, smell, and even the sense 
of taste are widened, either in the extensity or 
intensity of their sensitiveness. These changes 
combine with the more commonly recognized ado- 
lescent changes to make the child awkward and 
self-conscious. There is a lack of motor control 
which makes it easier to " fall over a chair than 
go around it." His self-consciousness shows it- 
self in a desire for solitude, or in a readiness to 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 141 

"show off" which has led to the designation of 
the first part of the period of puberty as the 
"smart age." The sternness of Clearchus and 
the primitive view of justice represented by re- 
venge are quick to appeal to the child at this 
age, while great dignity of carriage, heavy pound- 
ing with the heel on the floor in walking, and a 
hundred other affectations express the new con- 
sciousness of self. President Stanley Hall says: 
" Adolescence is nature's last effort to be generic." 
Intensity of adolescent life. — The increased 
blood supply has a more important function, 
however, than is shown in these results of physical 
change. The rapid building up of the physical 
puts the whole body on the qui vive for excite- 
ment. This tension should be relieved by activity 
in some direction which will contribute to both 
present and future happiness. The period of 
adolescence marks both the heights and the 
depths of the soul's strivings. It is the time when 
ambitions and ideals of widely divergent type 
force themselves upon the normal individual. 
Sixteen is the age of the largest number of con- 



142 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

versions. At almost the same age the worst and 
largest number of crimes are committed. The 
lavish use made of his store of energy by the 
adolescent, and the consequent ebbing of vigor 
and relaxation of the physical self until recu- 
perated, are also the causes of the fluctuation 
between activity and dullness, which is also a 
feature of this age of contrasts. 

Effect upon the interests of the child. — The 
increased size of the heart and the calling into 
play of cerebral centers not before active must 
naturally enlarge the scope of the child's interests 
and awaken in him abundant tendencies to activity. 
Strong feelings now in this direction, now in quite 
another, are characteristic. A marked change- 
ableness and reaching out in the direction of 
future ambitions and hopes are peculiar to this 
age. The lives of most prominent educational 
reformers show this changing but vigorous grop- 
ing tendency to activity now physical, now mental, 
at one time practical, at another reflective. Re- 
ports of adolescents have testified to this dream 
life, a phase peculiar to adolescence. 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 143 

The contrast between the real and the ideal 
life leads the child naturally to wish to work out 
from his own experience and make real without 
restraint the life of his dream. Hence arise 
the love of roaming, of truancy even, and the 
liking for solitude, — all these representative of 
the new life which has been excited in the child 
by the changes of his age. To this same cause 
is probably due the apparent irresponsibility of 
children at this age. It does not necessarily 
mean that the child is getting more careless or 
more depraved, but rather that a new and wide 
field of knowledge is the scene of his real 
mterest and mental action. Consequently the old 
takes on less of importance in the light of this 
wider, newer, intenser life. 

Needs of the girl. — The view of those who 
advocate for girls a training similar to that of 
boys, the same sports and forms of physical 
exercise, are hardly justified by the physiologi- 
cal changes coming at puberty. The develop- 
ment most perfect from the standpoint of 
maternity makes going upstairs especially diffi- 



144 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

cult, and even likely to produce injury. Where 
very much of this sort of thing is required, an 
elevator is almost essential. The serious effects 
of fatigue and strain after puberty deserve more 
general recognition. The amount of physical 
exercise taken by the girl, on the other hand, 
may easily be too restricted. Considerable, 
though moderate, exercise should be the rule. 

The tendency of some girls, through lack of 
ambition and ideals, to make themselves, or to 
be made, supernumeraries devoid of concrete 
duties, is serious. Aside from the ethical as- 
pects of such an existence, its morbid egoism 
frequently leads to unhappiness, and eventu- 
ally to disease. If we have an ideal no more 
pretentious than to make those immediately 
about us happier for our existence, it gives life 
meaning, and invigorates both mind and body. 

Needs of the boy. — The boy should have a 
variety of directions for the expenditure of his 
energy. His enthusiasms in school and in col- 
lege, his peculiar hobbies especially, are all 
worthy of our respect, no less than his ambi- 



GROWTH AND ADOLESCENCE 1 45 

tions and restlessness. He feels the desire to 
"yell," to run, to throw off restraint, which 
betoken the growing man. The fatigue and 
strain which may prove so serious for the girl 
mean little to the boy. Far more dangerous 
is it for him to disobey the summons to activity, 
physical or mental, made upon him by nature. 

Test questions. — Growth, though rapid, is at 
no time more easily arrested than at adolescence. 
The important questions are : Has the child edu- 
cative and healthy activities to serve as safety- 
valves for his energy? Has he ambitions and 
ideals to which he may devote himself? Has 
he dangerous tendencies from which he must 
be saved by turning the direction of his action 
toward recreations or serious pursuits, which not 
only interest, but appeal to his higher nature? 



CHAPTER XIII 

SCHOOL CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE CHILD'S 
PHYSICAL NATURE 

A summary. — A glance at the school and 
home conditions affecting the child's physical 
nature will serve two purposes. In the first 
place, it will give definiteness to the important 
practical points involved in the child's relations 
to these two highly influential factors in his en- 
vironment, and again, it will summarize the chap- 
ters which have preceded. The Germans have 
written ponderous volumes on the subject of 
school hygiene, treating it in almost every possi- 
ble phase. This chapter cannot expect to cover 
so large a territory, nor to give in detail all the 
advantages of each form of good conditions, or 
the disadvantages of each corresponding bad con- 
dition. It can, however, call attention to points 

frequently overlooked, sometimes easily remedied, 

146 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 147 

at other times fundamental. In this last class 
is the permanently bad environment due to the 
ignorance of those constructing school buildings 
or to the conservatism or economy of School 
Boards. In most instances it is not necessary 
to give in detail the reasons for insisting upon 
such arrangements as are here specified. To 
the ordinary reader they are obvious, but a state- 
ment of them may lead to a deeper realization 
of the degree to which good conditions are dis- 
regarded in the ordinary school building and 
room. The health record of children not attend- 
ing school is much better than that of those at- 
tending. The seriousness of these violations of 
hygienic laws deserves wider recognition, and 
teachers or parents should be able to determine 
by tests the degree to which their children are 
subjected to injurious conditions. 

Site. — The school building, whether in the 
city or country, should be on high ground, well 
drained. There should be no swamp, no stand- 
ing water near. The street should be quiet. If 
the situation is necessarily in a busy section of 



148 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

a town, the street should be asphalted in the 
vicinity of the school. No tall buildings should 
be near enough to affect the light of the school- 
room. Areas and like passages contributing to 
the light of the building should be painted 
white, so as to reflect as much of the light as 
possible. The test of the light is always the 
ability to read print at the normal distance. If 
the requirements of this test are not met in the 
darkest parts of the room even on cloudy days, 
work demanding much of the eyes should be 
suspended until the difficulty has been removed. 
It is evident that there should be no livery 
stable, brewery, or factory smells that can reach 
and vitiate the air of the schoolroom. The ex- 
act function of sunlight is not agreed upon by 
experts, but its influence seems to be decided. 
Whether its advantage be due to the freedom 
from dampness, or to some direct, purifying effect 
of the sunlight on the air, or to any other of a 
half-dozen alleged reasons, it is admitted that it is 
a factor in the healthfulness of school buildings. 
Water. — In cities an analysis of drinking 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 149 

water is usually made aside from the school. If 
a test seems to be needed for the school, dissolve 
a lump of loaf sugar in a bottle of water, and 
let it stand by the window twenty-four hours. 
If the water is not then clear, the supply from 
that source should not be used. In country 
schools there is danger in wells which have not 
been used during the vacation times. Wells 
should be emptied of the water which has been 
standing during the summer, and the usual pre- 
cautions with regard to the position of the well 
relative to the out-buildings and other sources 
of pollution should be observed. 

Heating and ventilation. — One of the best 
German authorities on school hygiene claims 
that the air in the ordinary schoolroom is already 
vitiated before the work of the school day has 
begun. In our own country of late great ad- 
vances have been made in the use of fans, 
electric or steam, for forcing air through build- 
ings. Schemes for forced ventilation have been 
combined very successfully with the use of hot 
air for heating, so that together they seem to be 



150 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

the most economical, effective means of heating 
and ventilating school buildings. Where hot 
air and forced ventilation are used, care must be 
taken that the source of the pure air forced into 
the rooms is not vitiated. There must be no 
windows near, from which the impurities of 
closets or refuse might come, nor should the 
air be robbed of its moisture in heating. The 
water pans in the furnace must not be allowed 
to get dry. 

The temperature should be from 65 to 70 . 
Americans usually keep their schoolrooms too 
warm. One German authority makes the proper 
heat for a schoolroom 50 . Teachers or chil- 
dren who cannot feel warm with the thermome- 
ter at yo° ought to wear warmer clothing. It 
is not right that a whole room should be dis- 
comfited by a temperature of 8o° because a 
teacher and perhaps one or two of the children 
feel more comfortable with that degree of heat. 
It has a degenerating effect upon the whole 
class. Where there is a suspicion that the 
moisture of a room is lacking, or where there 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 15* 

seems to be an excess of moisture due to that 
exhaled by the children, an hygrometer should 
be used to determine the amount. 

In general a student requires 250 cubic feet of 
air space with an allowance of 30 cubic feet of air 
each minute. For 40 pupils the dimensions of a 
room in feet should be about 25 by 30 by 13 J, and 
the air would have to be completely changed about 
seven times an hour, while the windows should 
be opened and the room flushed out once 
in that period. Where window ventilation is 
used (a dangerous measure when the mercury 
of the thermometer registers much below the freez- 
ing point), the air should come in through the top, 
and a board or sheet of metal be used to throw 
the air toward the center of the room so that it 
may be distributed more generally and freely. 
Any draughts, hot or cold, are to be avoided. 

Where carbonic acid gas is present in a school- 
room to the extent of six parts to ten thousand 
of pure air, organic matter enough to poison 
the air is present. The effect on the children 
is drowsiness, stupidity, and fatigue. If an odor 
can be detected by one coming from out of 



152 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

doors, the room is in need of ventilation. Or 
put a half-ounce of limewater in a pint bottle. 
Draw three very faint lines on a piece of paper. 
Note carefully how clearly these may be seen 
through the limewater. Using a bellows or 
bicycle pump, fill the bottle with the air of the 
schoolroom. Cork the bottle, shake it thoroughly, 
and let it stand three or four minutes. If on 
second trial with the lines they seem fainter or 
disappear, the impurity of the air is shown. 

Great care should be taken to see that the cellar 
of the school is dry, and that it is stored with 
nothing that may decay. For a healthy cellar the 
use of boxes of unslaked lime to absorb moisture 
is desirable. The water-closets ought rather to 
be in a separate building than in the cellar of the 
school building, as the air is very likely to suffer 
when the closets are placed in the building itself. 
No better use of a cellar can be made than to 
equip it with baths and gymnastic apparatus, if 
it can be properly heated and ventilated. 

No better indication of a well-ventilated and 
well-kept school building can be found than an 
absolute freedom from all odors. Wherever; 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 1 53 

odors are found, their sources should be discov- 
ered, and the causes removed, whether in the 
school yard or in the schoolroom or in the 
halls. Still more important is it that we know, 
when the smell is due to the diseased or neg- 
lected condition of one of the children. Dress- 
ing rooms should be ventilated by windows, and 
not by opening into the schoolroom. This last 
practice is particularly dangerous when wet 
clothes and umbrellas are placed in them. 

Floors. — The floors of the schoolroom should 
be made of hard-wood boards, fitting very close. 
There should be no cracks in which dirt can 
settle. An analysis of some of the dirt taken 
from cracks in German schoolrooms disclosed 
the germs of something like twenty different 
diseases, comprising a list well calculated to in- 
spire terror to the uninitiated. To avoid the 
possibility of germs of disease being stirred up 
with dust from the floor, it should be sprinkled 
with a little chopped straw dipped in a weak 
solution of chloride of lime, and swept once a 
day. This solution may be made by taking a 



154 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

pound of chloride of lime for four or five gal- 
lons of water. This daily careful treatment 
cannot be substituted for by washing with a 
large amount of water once a month or week. 

Furniture. — The following figures indicate by 
ages the distribution per thousand cases of a form 
of spinal curvature (scoliosis) as found in German 
children by Eulenberg. 1 

From birth to 2 years, 5 cases 
From 2 years to 3 years, 21 cases 
From 3 years to 4 years, 9 case's 
From 4 years to 5 years, 10 cases 
From 5 years to 6 years, 33 cases 
From 6 years to 7 years, 216 cases 
From 7 years to 10 years, 564 cases 
From 10 years to 14 years, 107 cases 
From 14 years to 20 years, 28 cases 
From 20 years to 30 years, 7 cases 

It will thus be seen that 920 of the cases 
out of the thousand occur between the ages of 
five and fourteen, a tremendous evidence of the 
unhygienic treatment of the children by the 
school. To prevent such an array of disease 
a radical change has been demanded by physi- 

1 Cited by Baginsky in his " Handbuch der Schulhygiene," 
page 514. 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 1 55 

cians. It should be possible to lower or raise 
the desks, the cover should slide down to meet 
the child as he writes, the seat should also be 
adjustable so that the feet will rest squarely on 
the floor. 1 Where a school cannot possibly be 
equipped with adjustable seats, three sizes of 
seats and desks should be found. No insist- 
ence of the teacher on correct position can 
atone for mal-adjustment of the seat and desk 
to the child. It would only result in greater 
fatigue and nervousness. Slate is the best kind 
of blackboard, though it is somewhat expensive. 
Where maps are used, care should be taken 
that there be no large numbers of superfluous 
names printed upon them, thereby obliterating 
important lines and rendering the map useless, 
except at some near point. Where physical 
and political maps are combined, emphasis 
should rather be laid on the boundaries, which 
should be printed distinctly, and no attempt 
should be made to use color except for indi- 
cating physical features. 

1 Such a desk and seat have been described on pages 96 ff . 



156 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Light and sight. — The preservation of the 
eyes has received more attention of late, and 
modern school buildings show marked improve- 
ment over those built twenty-five years ago. 
It will suffice here to recapitulate the conditions 
which have been found best. Window space in 
a room of favorable proportions should be one- 
fourth or one-fifth of the floor space. Where it 
is very long and narrow, and the windows are at 
the end, more window space should be given. 
Where the windows are near the seats, less 
window space is necessary. The light should 
come in from the top of the window, and 
curtains should therefore be raised from the 
bottom or raised and lowered from the middle 
of the window. The walls should be white, 
or nearly so, in order to reflect as much light 
as possible. Where any considerable part of 
the room is covered by blackboard, and the 
light is hardly sufficient, a white or light- 
colored curtain should be drawn over the black- 
board. This device will add more to the light 
of the room than is commonly imagined. Black- 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 157 

board curtains will also be useful in covering 
exercises which the teacher does not wish the 
student to see until the appointed time. In 
most schoolrooms at least a third, and fre- 
quently a half, of the reflecting wall surface 
above the desks is covered by blackboard. 

The window curtains should not be dark, but 
opaque. Where light may be gained from a 
window in a hall, opaque glass should again be 
used. Children should be guarded against fac- 
ing bright light. Curtains raised from the bot- 
tom are also useful in cutting off dazzling 
reflections from snow or neighboring houses. 
The light should come in from the left. That 
from the front or right is very harmful. That 
admitted from high windows in the rear and 
from the left is the most perfect. An oblong 
room, lighted left and rear, eight rows deep 
and six rows wide, is very nearly ideal in this 
respect. The test of the proper amount of 
light is the ability to read type at a normal dis- 
tance. If it can be read in good light and can- 
not be read in the light of the schoolroom, 



158 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

efforts should be made to get more light. On 
dark days care should be taken to cut down 
the amount of work required of the child's 
eyes, unless artificial light can be used. Of 
the different forms of artificial light, electric is 
by all means the best, as it leaves no products 
of combustion in the room, and the air is there- 
fore not vitiated. 

Books should have type meeting the re- 
quirements of Pica already laid down. 1 The 
paper should be clean and good. Where cer- 
tain books are held nearer the eyes than 
others, attention should be directed to their 
type and their degree of cleanliness. This 
last precaution is the more necessary in these 
days of free but soiled text-books. 

It is necessary that every teacher note indi- 
vidual peculiarities belonging to the room in 
different lights and with different positions of 
the curtains, and that he also be alive to the 
individual peculiarities of the children. Records 
should be kept whenever there seems to be 

1 See page 13. 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 159 

evidence of myopia (near-sightedness). This 
cannot be properly watched without tests. 1 

Hearing. — As already seen, children have fre- 
quently suffered great injustice as a result of 
defective hearing, which had been mistaken for 
listlessness or stupidity. Tests are again very 
necessary here, and the teacher should be aware 
of and alert to catch sight of the symptoms 2 of 
aural defect. 

Disease 3 and the schoolroom. — The school has 
not only contributed largely to the number of 
cases of near-sightedness, spinal curvature, and 
more or less serious disorders of the ner- 
vous type, but by spreading contagious disease 
it has greatly added to the woes of child- 
hood. Among the too lightly regarded means 
of preventing contagion are ventilation, care- 
ful sweeping and dusting, inspection of the 
cellar and water-supply, hygienic fountains with 
strainers, and the use of individual towels, either 
cloth or paper. In view of the marked de- 
crease in the number of cases per outbreak 

1 See pages 14 ff. 2 See pages 26 and 31, 3 See pages S3 ff. 



l6o THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

where contagious diseases are isolated, the fol- 
lowing rules, adopted by the New Haven Board 
of Education, relating to contagious diseases, 
are worthy of special commendation and general 
acceptation : — 

RULES OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION RELAT- 
ING TO CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 

Section 138. They (the principals) shall see that the 
following rules of the Board of Education are observed : — 

"No superintendent, principal, or teacher of any school, 
and no parent or guardian of any child attending school, 
shall knowingly permit a child sick with small-pox, scarlet 
fever, diphtheria, membraneous croup, or typhus fever, or 
any child residing in a house in which such disease shall 
exist, to attend any school without a permit from the 
Board of Health." 

Any child who has been exposed to any one of the 
foregoing diseases shall not be permitted to return to 
school for at least two weeks after the last exposure, and 
then may return only upon a certificate of the Health 
Officer. 

Any child, a member of a family in which, or living in 
the same house where one of the foregoing diseases exists, 
must receive a certificate from the Health Officer before 
returning to school. 

Principals shall request parents of pupils who are af- 
fected by contagious disease, or who have been exposed 
to such disease, other than those named in the foregoing, 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS l6l 

to withdraw them temporarily from school, and in case 
of refusal or neglect, shall suspend such pupil until the 
attending physician or Health Officer shall certify in writ- 
ing that the danger of contagion is past. 

Children may return to school in cases of scarlet fever 
after 49 days, diphtheria after 28 days, typhoid fever after 
28 days from the appearance of the disease and then only 
upon the permit of the Board of Health. 

Any child sick with the measles may return to school 
14 days after the appearance of the disease. 

Any child who has been exposed to the measles or 
lives in a house where the disease exists shall remain 
away from school 10 days after the appearance of the 
disease. However, when a child has been sick with 
measles or has been exposed to the same, or lives in a 
house where said disease exists, he may be admitted to 
school upon a physician's certificate stating that it will be 
safe to admit the child to school, whatever the number 
of days. 

By resolution of the Board of Education, adopted 
March 27, 1896, the foregoing rules were made applicable 
to teachers and janitors. 

It would be a splendid investment for the 
future health of any city to have a special officer 
to look after the health of children in the schools 
— call him, if you will, a school physician. His 
duty should be chiefly to prevent disease, but might 
include also the investigation of any cases re- 



1 62 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

ferred to him by teachers in the schools. The 
records of the past need only to be consulted 
to show the desirability of having such an officer. 
Where a town is not large enough to warrant a 
special school physician, one of the regular phy- 
sicians may be employed to do this work. He 
could probably be secured at a very reasonable 
rate, in view of the advertising that would be 
given him by this appointment. In many cities 
where there are medical schools or free dispen- 
saries, teachers are ignorant of the fact, and 
children too poor to get necessary treatment are 
suffered to drift along and perhaps become 
incurable, when competent and free medical 
treatment could have been obtained had the 
teacher been aware of the fact. Not infrequently 
large-hearted specialists are willing to give their 
time to needy children vouched for by earnest 
teachers. 

Schoolroom method. — The pupils in a certain 
city were recently referred to as well versed in the 
latest methods of worrying teachers. It is not im- 
possible that in many a city a similar charge might 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 1 63 

be made against the teacher with reference to 
the child. There are marks, examinations, re- 
strictions as to position and occupation, the use 
of fine muscles in young children, the lack of 
recreation, punishments of various sorts, a real 
or seeming arbitrariness, nagging, and perhaps 
more serious, the over-pressure upon some chil- 
dren due to iron-clad system, and many others, 
all devices for worrying pupils. To be sure each 
has some special purpose and some specific ad- 
vantages in individual cases. Some of them 
are forced upon us by public opinion. In this 
last class are included especially schemes for 
marking. There are few teachers who could 
not dispense with their marking system, and 
be equally just to the child, were the parents 
satisfied. The teacher knows from the work 
done, and not from the marks, whether Johnny 
or Jennie should be advanced or held. Marks 
give false standards. Perfection for one child 
is not perfection for another. The most impor- 
tant of all examination questions is this : Is 
the child doing his best? The present mark- 



1 64 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

ing system current almost everywhere gives no 
answer to this question, and is ordinarily, more- 
over, no indication of the child's real effort in 
his work. It must be granted that marks con- 
stitute an easily understood indicator of general 
fitness to advance to a higher grade, and, as such, 
they offer a concrete goal to the child. But, as 
a measure and reward of endeavor, which, aside 
from our theorizing, they are to the child, marks 
are a serious failure. 

Again, examinations are devices for worrying 
pupils, necessary under some conditions, and one 
of the special beauties of a school system. They 
should be reduced to the minimum, and are desir- 
able simply as incentives to review and effort. 

The mere subjection to school routine and 
discipline, and the alertness necessary for strict 
compliance, are sources of considerable worry 
and wear upon the child. Immediate obedience 
to successive bells and signals, restrictions to 
certain postures in the seat, to certain forms 
of occupation and even of play, do much to 
dwarf interest, to lead to a passivity which is 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 1 65 

far removed from the active aim of the school- 
room. Freedom from all unnecessary restraint, 
and a study on the part of the teacher how 
best to secure the maximum activity commen- 
surate, not with order, but with effective teaching, 
should be the teacher's aim. 

The use of fine muscles, those of the fingers 
in the kindergarten and in the earlier grades 
through sewing and writing, are of known harm 
to the children. The kindergartens have largely 
dropped the use of fine needlework. But we 
still see children in the earlier grades using their 
fingers in writing where they should be using 
their arms, preferably on a blackboard. If a 
horizontal or sloping blackboard could be secured, 
this would have many advantages for the first 
writing. 1 

In the crush of modern studies into the school 
the time for recreation of the free-play sort has 
been cut down if not out. However, it has been 
shown scientifically to be economy in the learning 

1 See Hancock's " Preliminary Study of Motor Ability," in the 
Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. Ill, pages 9 ff. 



1 66 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

power of the child to have a short period of recrea- 
tion in the open air if possible after every pro- 
tracted exercise or series of exercises. The figures 
furnish material for severe arraignment of no 
recess or indoor recess programmes. Where the 
teacher has the ability to concentrate and corre- 
late this work truly, so as to give more evident 
unity to the subjects taught, he has done a 
splendid thing for the children. But should 
he be but a surface servant of the popular 
demand for correlation, it will be confusion worse 
confounded and an added source of worriment 
to the pupil. 

Whatever forms of punishment are used, they 
must necessarily entail a certain amount of worry, 
but of a salutary rather than a harmful kind. 
It becomes harmful where the child begins 
to fear for his own freedom, and becomes dis- 
couraged. Punishment by keeping children after 
school should be reduced to the minimum because 
of the devitalized condition of the air. 

One of the most potent modes of worrying 
children is least conscious of itself. It is the 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 1 67 

teacher with a nervous manner. He is arbi- 
trary, either really or apparently, and frequently 
very serious. This seriousness and this arbitra- 
riness are imitated by the children, and produce 
a clashing of purposes, tending only to make 
the work more nerve-tiring for both teacher and 
children. Every teacher has days of this sort. 
In each case they tend to become more frequent ; 
the teacher must not allow this weakness to be- 
come chronic. 

All children cannot be treated exactly alike. 
This truth applies particularly to the period of 
adolescence. The treatment of individuals, and 
especially the treatment of girls as compared 
with the boys, must be varied according to the 
more rapid maturity of the former and to the 
personal peculiarities of each. 

The school programme. — An investigation of 
the school curriculum and its effect upon the 
child's physical condition has led to a number of 
interesting, if not thoroughly conclusive, results. 
The longest period which a child of five to seven 
years should be expected to have for a given 



1 68 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

exercise should not exceed fifteen minutes. For 
a child of seven to ten years it should not exceed 
twenty minutes ; for a child from ten to twelve, 
not over twenty-five; and from twelve to sixteen, 
not more than thirty. These figures have been 
approved both by experiment and experience. 
They are maxima for all confining exercises. 
With regard to the exercises which are the most 
fatiguing, arithmetic and language, as may be 
generally supposed, have proved most so. But 
rather to the surprise of most teachers, careful 
experiments have ranked physical culture exer- 
cises with these subjects. In justice to physical 
culture, it should, however, be remembered that 
this is the case where it is continued for the 
same length of time as the other exercises, which 
rarely happens in this country. Still, the experi- 
ments show that gymnastics is not as restful as 
has been thought. One investigator, Kemsies, 
found the order, beginning with the most fatigu- 
ing, to be : gymnastics, mathematics, foreign lan- 
guages, religion, mother tongue, natural history, 
geography, history, singing, and drawing. All 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 1 69 

of these investigations are tentative and liable to 
error from numerous sources. The relative diffi- 
culty of subjects is best known to the teacher 
and the pupil, and varies much with individual 
teachers and students, depending upon the tastes 
and aptitudes of both. The interchange of the 
more and the less difficult studies is desirable. 
The fatiguing nature of physical culture is also 
a strong argument which should forbid the 
supplanting of a recess by such an exercise. 
Aside from the time for recess (and this should 
be under as little felt supervision as possible), 
there should be, when the hours are at all long, 
a lunch period, especially for the younger children. 
As for the relative merits of a one-session, or 
two-session plan, much may be said on both 
sides. The consensus of opinion and recent 
experiments concerning the time of greatest 
fatigue, have seemed to indicate that the morn- 
ing work should be given over rather to the 
more difficult subjects, while the afternoon may 
be devoted to one hard subject and recreation 
or study work. 



170 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

There is little doubt that as much may be 
accomplished during the first school year in a 
three-hour session as in one of five hours. Data 
where it has been tried would seem to indicate 
that second and third year pupils will progress 
at a normal rate with no more than three hours 
and a half. The time spent above that is ordina- 
rily lost through the strain, effort, and confine- 
ment involved in the usual school curriculum. 
This might not be the case, if we introduced 
more educative play, and more outdoor work, 
with the children in our five-hour session; but 
until then it will. 

The school curriculum. — With regard to the 
ordinary subjects of the school curriculum, a few 
suggestions which may help the child physically 
are pertinent. 

From the standpoint of psychology and physi- 
ology the value of reading, writing, and arithmetic 
has been questioned for children under ten years 
of age. 1 Manual exercise, natural science, and 

1 See Patrick's " Should Children under Ten Learn to Read and 
Write," in the Popular Science Monthly, Vol. LXIV, pages 382 ff. 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 171 

history stories are certainly healthier, though 
they may not be so sound from the sociological 
standpoint. 

The vertical writing is to be preferred. It is 
easier for the eye and the body. The amount of 
time spent in writing should be greatly reduced, 
if, as is the case not infrequently, one-fifth of a 
child's time is spent in some exercise involving 
this employment. Often much more than that 
amount of time is given to writing. Such a re- 
quirement is abnormal, uninteresting, and, worst 
of all, useless, unless it be to the teacher. 

Hygiene should form an even more important 
subject in a curriculum than physiology. Many 
schools have forgotten that power and not 
knowledge alone was wanted from this study, 
and the hygiene element has been disappearing. 

It is also apparent that the other subjects of 
the schoolroom have suffered from our insist- 
ence upon knowledge rather than feeling or ex- 
pression. Even now, in reading or in literature, 
few teachers have learned that it is to enjoy 
good literature, which is the real aim, and not to 



172 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

know all about when and where it was written, 
and the precise nature of allusions made. Un- 
less the children feel nobler and learn to find 
in literature the source of their nobler feeling, 
no permanent advantage from most of the reading 
work has resulted. 

In history, again, it is not merely to know 
exact dates, facts, and figures, but rather to 
inspire the children, to create in them ideals, to 
give them not merely a wider knowledge, but 
wider feeling, wider sympathy. The teaching 
profession is suffering from the feeling that in 
history and kindred subjects we must neces- 
sarily read and study as a text-book some dry 
but absolutely accurate treatise, rather than a 
fascinating and inspiring work like Macaulay's 
"History of England." The teacher can only 
blame himself if the child who has been worried 
into dry facts and figures, dimly understood, tires 
quickly of his reading and his history. More- 
over, this worry means nerve waste. 

In grammar and arithmetic the emphasis is 
put rather on the knowledge of correct forms 



SCHOOL CONDITIONS 1 73 

and methods than the accurate use of them. 
Here, again, we must introduce the expression, 
the using, the doing elements. In the case of 
grammar, it is perhaps questionable whether as 
a technical study it should not be relegated 
from the grammar-school curriculum altogether. 
The Committee of Ten wisely reduced it to the 
last year in the school curriculum, but such have 
been the requirements in grammar on state and 
college examination papers, that comparatively 
little progress has been made toward reducing 
the amount in actual practice. 

The introduction of nature study and manual 
training work has done much toward enlisting 
the activities and interests of children. 

Where drawing is made subservient to expres- 
sion rather than the study of form, it is one 
of the healthiest and most recuperative of school 
exercises. 

The growing tendency to introduce current 
news into the schoolroom in connection with 
geography or history will tend further to give 
life to the school course. These new features 



174 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

point to increased health and decreased worry 
in the future. 

In the teaching of music we have frequently 
blinded ourselves to the fact that we were harm- 
ing voices which were changing, and have led 
children to strain for notes which they should 
have grown toward. The hygiene of the voice 
deserves more study, especially by teachers in 
the higher grades. 

We should limit our demands upon the voice to 
the range of the children. They must be warned 
against shrill screaming. Especial care should 
be taken with the boy from the ages fourteen 
to sixteen, and with the girl of twelve or thirteen 
years. During this period there should be no 
systematic cultivation of the voice ; and children 
at school should be excused from participating 
in elocutionary and other sustained vocal exer- 
cises without any detriment to their class stand- 
ing. 



CHAPTER XIV 

HOME CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE CHILD'S 
PHYSICAL NATURE 

Hygiene from the teacher's standpoint. — Al- 
most everything in the previous chapter has 
an equal applicability in this one. The school 
stimulates to mental endeavor, and is more or 
less repressive of physical change. The home, 
however, is free both from this stimulation and 
this repression. The child's own individuality 
acts out itself, and not the average individuality. 
With this difference in mind the parallelisms 
between school and home conditions are evident. 

There are, however, certain additional points 
of study which need be mentioned, if the child's 
home environment is to be investigated as far 
as it may affect his physical nature. The 
whole question of food, clothing, bathing, exer- 
cise, or recreation belongs to this side of the 

175 



176 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

investigation, while important supplementary aids 
in studying the nervous system, as employed at 
school, will be furnished by the parent. This 
chapter is written, it will be remembered, from 
the teacher's standpoint. Practically, everything 
in it has been suggested by the direct experi- 
ence of teachers. New life to many a child 
will follow an investigation of home conditions 
tactfully followed up. The most probable out- 
come for the teacher, otherwise, would be the 
deeper realization of the ignorance of parents of 
some of the fundamental principles of hygiene. 
Rare, indeed, is the household that is not remiss 
at some important point of hygiene; probably 
as rare as the ideal schoolroom. A second gen- 
eral result would be the greater appreciation of 
the advisability of having a school physician who 
could properly investigate cases where the symp- 
toms, pallor, nervousness, indigestion, and any 
others, point to unfavorable conditions. 

Important questions. — The following questions 
are of prime importance for the home. A 
negative answer to any of them implies con- 



HOME CONDITIONS 1 77 

ditions certain to weaken the child, no matter 
what our theories of hardening or toughening 
him may be. The questions are, of course, sup- 
plementary to those already proposed for the 
school, and must not be considered complete 
without them. 

Food 

1. Is the food eaten by the child simple? 

2. Is it varied ? 

3. Is it well cooked? 

4. Is it eaten slowly? 

5. Is it thoroughly masticated? 

6. Is it easily digested ? 

7. Is it eaten at regular times? 

8. Where lunches are used, are they simple and 

nourishing, first of all? 

Clothing and care of the skin 

9. Is the underclothing changed at least once a 

week ? 

10. Does the child wear woolen next to the skin 

from early autumn to the late spring? 

11. Does he change the underclothing at night? 



178 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

12. Does he wear an overcoat or other heavy 

wrap even when the cold is not extreme ? 

13. Are the chest, neck, and legs protected with 

wool except in summer? 

14. Does he or she depend upon the shoulders 

rather than the waist for the support of 
clothing ? 

15. Do his parents see to it that he changes or 

dries his shoes when he gets his feet wet? 

16. Does he bathe all over at least twice a 

week ? 

17. Does he bathe in water neither too warm 

nor too cold ? 

Air 

18. Does the child always breathe through the 

nose ? 

19. Is there anything but accidental provision 

for fresh air in sleeping and living room ? 

20. Are the furniture and floors kept clean and 

free from dust? 

21. Is the plumbing often inspected? 

22. Is the cellar dry both in summer and winter ? 



HOME CONDITIONS 1 79 

Exercise 

23. Is he allowed to go out bundled up in cold 

weather, and not kept in for fear of 
taking cold? 

24. Does he come in before he gets chilled? 

25. How much time does he spend in exercise? 

26. How much of it is in free play ? 

27. How much of it is out of doors ? 

Sleep 

A child from six to eight years old should get 
eleven or twelve hours of sleep. A child from 
nine to eleven years old should get ten or eleven 
hours of sleep. A child from twelve to fourteen 
years should get nine or ten hours of sleep. 

28. Does he get that amount? 

29. Does he sleep free from draughts ? 

30. Does he sleep with access to fresh air ? 

31. Does he sleep where it is only moderately :old ? 

32. Does he sleep where it is cool enough? 

33. Does he eat only food easily digested before 

going to bed? 



180 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

34. Does he go to bed free from mental excite- 

ment or anxiety? 

Miscellaneous 

35. Has he the habit of regularly evacuating 

the bowels at a stated time? 

36. Is he generally strong enough to do the 

work of the school easily ? 

37. If he has days when he is not strong 

enough, are they rare ? 

38. Is he free from any noticeable hereditary or 

early acquired physical weakness? 

39. Does he refrain from the use of tobacco? 

40. Does he always secure the best possible 

light when reading ? 

41. Is he careful never to read lying on the 

floor, couch, or by the firelight or twi- 
light or with his book shaded ? 

42. Is almost all of his reading in books with 

good clear print? 

43. Does he carefully avoid facing a lamp or 

other bright light while reading or talk- 
ing? 



HOME CONDITIONS l8l 

44. Are his ears kept free from accumulations 

of wax by almost daily washing? 

45. After attacks of measles, scarlet fever, 

catarrh, has he escaped without suffering 
from discharge of the ear or from notice- 
able deafness? 

46. Is he encouraged to quickness and accuracy 

of movement at home in any positive way ? 

47. Are games of various sorts played at home? 

48. Does he always hear carefully enunciated 

English at home? 

49. Is any attempt made to help the child to 

correctness in his English? 

50. Is the child free from all sorts of worry 

outside of school? 

51. Is he kept from too frequent emotional ex- 

citement of all sorts, theaters, parties, etc.? 

52. Does he sleep dreamlessly? 

53. Does he rarely get over fatigued ? 

54. At home does he stand straight and take 

good postures when sitting? 

55. Is he careful to walk erect and quickly with 

springy gait? 



1 82 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Importance and use of questions. — The pos- 
sible scope of this chapter is as wide as hygiene. 
To bring it within reasonable bounds consider- 
able knowledge of hygiene is presupposed. An 
attempt has, however, been made to throw each 
of the questions into the form of a hygienic 
principle, so that "yes" in answer to each would 
imply perfect hygienic conditions as far as these 
questions reach, and it is thought that they 
cover the chief points of hygiene. It is certain 
that they include knowledge and a means of 
testing which are sadly needed, if the experi- 
ence of teachers is to count for anything. It is 
not expected that a teacher or supervisor shall 
write out a list or a copy of these questions and 
submit it to a given parent. No teacher has 
the time for that. One of two choices must 
be made : either superintendents must provide 
teachers with blanks containing important ques- 
tions of this sort (and it is hoped that these 
will furnish a suggestive guide in his choice), 
or teachers will have to secure an interview 
with the parents and ask the questions orally 



HOME CONDITIONS 183 

of them, noting those to which the answer, "no," 
is received. 

Of course, a nice tact must be shown in sub- 
mitting questions of the sort suggested in this 
chapter and in following them up. Any cir- 
cular sent out should bear a statement to the 
effect that the teacher is studying the needs of 
a certain child, because he feels that there is 
something in its surroundings which interferes 
with progress. It will certainly be to the great 
advantage of the child if this obstruction can be 
found and removed. 

It is to be borne in mind that these ques- 
tions are not to be submitted to the parents of 
each child in the school or room. That course, 
though it might prove educative to the parents, 
would dissipate the teacher's energy. 

The object of the investigation is to enable 
the teacher to know all of the conditions where 
the children are really suffering from neglect, 
and from his knowledge to be able to suggest 
means of righting the wrong. This is only an- 
other instance of the tendency of child-study, 



1 84 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

namely, to focus upon individuals rather than 
take in vaguely the rank and file who are get- 
ting on very well under the conditions which 
exist. And perhaps no lesson is needed more at 
the present time than this lesson of the grandeur 
of and the individuality of the individual. It 
should be noted too that the instant one of these 
dragging individuals is set right, an astonishing 
impetus is given the many in the schoolroom. 

Exceptional cases. — Some children defy the 
laws of hygiene with comparative impunity, 
though the immunity from disaster is in the 
eyes of the ignorant rather than those of the 
physician. Other children less hardy speedily 
show the results of such violations of nature's 
laws. The persistence with which the popular 
mind clings to certain whims, such as the harden- 
ing of the boy to the cold or to certain kinds 
of food, is an illustration of this. To be sure, 
plenty of examples may be shown of persons 
who have survived that treatment, just as long- 
lived victims of alcoholism, of the morphine 
habit, or of other generally recognized poisonous 



HOME CONDITIONS 185 

conditions, are also to be found. It is the 
physician who can point to the other side and 
acquaint one with the suffering and losses coming 
from exposure of all sorts. It is perhaps worth 
adding that, owing to superior medical skill, 
from ten to twenty per cent more of the chil- 
dren born reach school age than did so in the 
days of our great-grandfathers. This means 
that, while almost the same number of children 
of very vigorous or even of average vitality 
are born, a large number are reared who could 
never expose themselves to ordinary hardships or 
breaches of hygienic laws without serious results. 

Remarks. — A few remarks on some of the 
questions will not be amiss. Though, perhaps, 
not necessary for the test questions, they may 
still be of value to the teacher in talking with 
the parents. 

Dr. Rankin is authority for the statement 
that the strength of the body at maturity 
varies as the proper amount of guidance and 
attention to the laws of hygiene. 

The questions asked under the head of food 



1 86 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

are all of them essential. It will not do to con- 
form with the majority of them only. The same 
might be said with almost equal truth of those 
under the other headings. 

The care of the skin takes on a special signifi- 
cance when it is known that from one to two 
and a half pints of effete matter pass through 
the skin every twenty-four hours. Any exposure 
to cold or lack of sufficient protection prevents 
this process, throws a strain upon the kidneys, 
and is liable to derange the digestive organs. 
A failure to bathe and to change clothing has 
a similar effect. The lack of an overcoat is a 
prolific cause of catarrhal trouble, pallor of 
countenance, and lack of fat. Many cases are 
on record, especially of young children, where a 
child healthy enough in the summer is brought to 
a physician's office in the late autumn, because of 
some serious loss of health. The child has been 
found to be wearing practically the same cloth- 
ing worn in summer, and the provision of clothes 
suitable to the season has resulted in almost 
immediate recovery. 



HOME CONDITIONS 1 87 

When mouth breathing takes place it is caused 
either by disease or by habit. Indian mothers 
frequently force the child to breathe through the 
nose by closing the mouth with their fingers 
until the habit of nose breathing is developed. 

Dr. Rankin is also authority for the statement 
that " the only way to harden a child — by which 
is meant rendering him less susceptible to the 
effect of cold, and giving him strength and vigor 
of body — is by rigid adherence to the laws of 
health ; that is, by providing a sufficient amount 
of clothing, plenty of outdoor exercise, pure air 
to breathe, simple and good food, with ample 
amount of sleep." 1 

It is estimated that the heart rests between 
beats a quarter of the time, and the lungs at the 
end of inspiration and expiration a third of the 
time. The only rest possible for certain parts of 
the brain is through sleep. 

1 F. M. Rankin, M. D., " Hygiene of Childhood," an excellent 
book. See bibliography, page 200. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

This bibliography has been arranged to include publica- 
tions that have influenced this one in three ways : first, there 
are certain standard books which have contributed most, 
though in some instances indirectly ; secondly, there are 
those books or articles that have contributed more directly ; 
and thirdly, those books or articles which, through their in- 
spirational character, have heightened whatever usefulness 
this small treatise may possess. To these have been added 
a number of those which are valuable, and possibly more 
available than works of more importance scientifically, while 
many others equally worthy which have been of service to 
the writer are omitted, because in connection with the others 
which have been given mention they seemed to be superfluous. 

In the main, the order under each heading has been 
determined by the relative importance of the references. 

To those interested in carrying investigations still further, 
the " Bibliography of School Hygiene," * by Dr. W. H. 
Burnham, will, with its 436 titles, prove very suggestive. 
"The Bibliography of Education,' 1 by Will S. Monroe in 
Appleton's International Education Series, New York, 1897, 
and the " Bibliography of Child-Study," by Louis N. Wil- 
son, published at Worcester, Mass., 1898, and supplemented 
since, contain many titles relative to the topics touched upon 
here. 

1 See page 199. 
188 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 89 

There are no books which cover the same ground as this 
In so far as it is based on the hygiene of the home or the 
school, rich material is to be found treating of those subjects. 
For some of the best references see the bibliography of the 
last two chapters. 

Sight 

System of Diseases of the Eye (in four volumes). Lippin- 
cott, 1897. 

Especially chapter on School Hygiene, vol. ii, p. 356, by 
S. D. Risley, A.M., M.D., Ph.D. ; chapter on Detection of 
Color-Blindness, vol. ii, p. 315, by William Thomson, 
M.D. ; Methods of Determining Acuity of Vision, by Dr. 
Herman Snellen, vol. ii, p. 11. 

Excellent chapters on their respective subjects. 

Cohn: Hygiene' of the Eye. London, 1886. 

An authority. The first book to awaken popular interest. Somewhat 
antiquated. 

Allport : Eye and its Care. Lippincott, 1897. 

A recent handbook; valuable, but less comprehensive than the preceding. 

Jeffries : Color-Blindness : Its Dangers and its Detection. 
Boston, 1883. 

Contains translation of Holmgren's principles and method of discovery 
and diagnosis of color-blindness. 

Allport : Tests for Defective Vision in School Children. Edu- 
cational Review, vol. xiv, p. 1 50. 

Description of methods and results of tests in Minneapolis schools. 

Rowe : Lighting of School-Rooms. New York, 1904. 

Contains important suggestions to architects, and teachers for preserva- 
tion of normal vision. 

Johnson : Defective Vision of School Children. Educational 
Review, vol. xviii, p. 15. 

Advocates State measures or at least systematic attempts to adapt school 
work to the large class of defectives. 



190 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Hearing 

Chrisman : The Hearing of Children. Pedagogical Seminary, 
vol. ii, p. 397. 

The best treatment of the subject the writer has found. 

Sexton : The Ear and its Diseases. New York, 1898. 

A recent book of great value. 

Burnett: Hearing and How to Keep It. Philadelphia, 1880. 

General treatment of hygiene of the ear. 

Percy : Causes of Deafness in School Children and Its Influ- 
ence upon Education. Child-Study Monthly, vol. i, p. 97. 

An important paper on prevention of deafness. 

Gallaudet : Values in the Education of the Deaf. Educa- 
tional Review, vol. iv, p. 16. 

Offers to the teacher suggestions on the treatment of partially deaf 
children. 

Miller: One Boy's Debt to Child-Study. Child-Study 
Monthly, vol. i, p. 259. 

Illustrates forcibly the necessity of tests by the teacher for the discovery 
of deafness. 

Other Senses 
Bernstein: The Five Senses of Man. New York, 1886. 

Contains important chapters on sense of pressure and of temperature ; 
also on smell and taste. 

Wundt : Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology, trans- 
lated by Creighton and Titchener. New York, 1894. 

Sets forth principles fundamental to the study of sensation. 

Sanford : Experimental Psychology. Boston, 1897. 

Makes suggestions for testing these senses and gives bibliographies. 

Scripture : Thinking, Feeling, and Doing. Meadville, Pa., 
1895. 

Contains suggestive tests and remarks on touch, taste, smell, pressure, 
and temperature. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 191 

Bain : Senses and Intellect. New York (Fourth Edition), 1894. 

Has a valuable classification of sensations of taste, smell, and touch. 



Motor Ability 
Bryan: Voluntary Motor Ability. American Journal of 
Psychology, vol. v, pp. 125-204. 

A careful scientific study of the subject Treats of maximum rate of 
rhythmic movement ; also of precision of direction and force of movement. 

Gilbert: Researches on the Mental and Physical Develop- 
ment of School Children. Studies from the Yale Labora- 
tory, 1895. 

Important. Gives results of elaborate experiments with method of pro- 
cedure. 

Hancock : A Preliminary Study of Motor Ability. Pedagog- 
ical Seminary, vol. iii, p. 9. 

A fine syllabus is presented here with preliminary results and a discussion 
or digest of certain other tests of motor ability. 

Johnson : Education by Plays and Games. Pedagogical Semi- 
nary, vol. iii, p. 97- 

Contains an admirable course 0/ games for the development of motor 
ability and mental alertness. 

Beebe : The Motor and Sensory Child. Child-Study Monthly, 
vol. iii, p. 14- 

A popular presentation of the importance of the motor side of child life. 

Sisson: Children's Plays. Studies in Education, p. 171. 
Stanford University, 1896. 

A suggestive but not extensive study. 

Halleck: The Education of the Motor Centers. Transac- 
tions of Illinois Society for Child-Study, vol. iii, p. 46. 

A brief discussion of methods of developing motor control. 

Hughes : Educational Value of Play. Educational Review, 
vol. viii, p. 327. 

A timely treatise on the naturalness and usableness of play. 



192 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Hall : A Case of Arrested Motor Development. Transactions 
of Illinois Society for Child-Study, vol. ii, No. I, p. 8. 

Contains an analytic study of a defective, with a brief outline of methods 
by which he was taught. 

Enunciation 
Dean: Science of Utterance. Chicago, 1888. 

A very helpful handbook. Treating the analysis of voice and the correct 
production of vocal sounds with exercises for practicing proper utterance. 

Monroe: Vocal Gymnastics. Philadelphia, 188 1. 

Suggestive chapters on Control of the Organs of the Throat, Vowel 
Analysis, and Articulation. 

Bell: Principles of Elocution. Washington, 1887. 

Part I deals with the enunciation of vowels and consonants. 

Van Liew and Lucas : Phonics and Reading. Bloomington, 
111., 1897. 

A valuable little book on the subject from the schoolroom standpoint. 

Hartwell : Report of Director of Physical Training. Boston, 
1894. 

Contains an exceedingly valuable report touching at length on stammering 
and stuttering in the schoolroom, and giving tables. 

Scurlock : A Case of Arrested Speech Development. Child- 
Study Monthly , vol. ii, p. 665. 

Shows possibility of developing power of speech even when the defect is 
extreme. 

Nervousness 

Rosenthal: General Physiology of Muscles and Nerves. 
New York, 1881. 

A scholarly study of nervous action, its nature and conditions. 

Cowles: Neurasthenia and Its Mental Symptoms. Boston, 
1891. 

An excellent analysis of symptoms and conditions with a view to the 
philosophy of the treatment of neurasthenia. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 93 

Monroe: Chorea among School Children. American Physical 
Educational Review, vol. ii, p. 4. 

A practical discussion from the standpoint both of science and the school- 
room. 

Sudduth : Nervous and Backward Children. Child-Study 
Monthly, vol. iii, p. 540, vol. iv, pp. 25, 156. 

A popular series of papers showing emotional and pathological results of 
nervous defect. 

Warner: Nervous System of the Child. New York, 1900. 

Contains helpful suggestions for observing and testing nervous child. 

Reynolds : Influence of Tenement-House Lif2 on the Nervous 
Condition of Children. Transactions of /l/inois Society 
for Child-Study, vol. ii, No. 1, p. 33. 

Suggests evils which should be investigated by teachers. 

Fatigue 
Binet and Henri : La Fatigue Intellectuelle. Paris, 1898. 

Best book on the subject. General review and criticism of the work done 
previously in fatigue, and adds description and results of their various inves- 
tigations both physiological and psychological. 

Mosso : Fatigue. New York, 1904. 

A translation of Mosso's work. Contains a general review of the sub- 
ject and describes Mosso's methods and results with the ergograph, etc. 

Kraepelin: Zur Ueberbiirdungsfrage. Jena, 1897. 

A critical study of the most important results up to its date. 

Kemsies : Arbeitshygiene der Schule auf Grund von Ermiid- 
ungsmessungen. Berlin, 1898. 

Gives results found by use of calculation and ergograph methods. Tests 
were made after different studies at various times. Very suggestive. 

Griesbach : Energetik und Hygiene des Nerven Systems in 
der Schule. Leipsic, 1895. 

Tests fatigue by aesthesiometer with interesting results. 



194 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Vannod : La Fatigue Intellectuelle et son Influence sur la 
Cutanie Sensibilite. Geneva, 1896. 

Uses the same method as Griesbach. Confirming his results. Shows 
effect on sensibility to pain. 

Leuba : The Validity of the Griesbach Method of Determin- 
ing Fatigue. Psychological Review, vol. vi, No. 6, p. 573. 

Voices the apparently growing distrust of Griesbach's results. 

Lukens : Mental Fatigue. American Physical Educational 
Review, March and June, 1899. 

A careful and admirable digest of all the most important experimentation 
on fatigue. Contains a bibliography of over sixty references. 

Corning: Brain Exhaustion. New York, 1884. 

A good treatise on permanent fatigue. 

Baker: Fatigue in School Children. Educational Review, 
vol. xv, p. 34. 

A practical paper, with excellent outline of symptoms. 

Dresslar: Fatigue. Pedagogical Seminary, vol. ii, p. 102. 

A resume* of studies at the time the recent investigation was beginning. 

Holmes : Fatigue of a School Hour, Pedagogical Seminary, 
vol. iii, p. 213, 

Contains elaborate tables on fatigue as shown in the copying and compu- 
tation of numbers. 

Ellis and Shipe : Accuracy of Fatigue Tests. American Jour- 
nal 0/ Psychology, vol. xiv, p. 232. 

Contains data to show general inaccuracy of present methods of testing 
fatigue. 

Diseases and the School 
Oppenheim : Medical Diseases of Childhood. New York, 1900. 

A ponderous volume not written from the schoolroom standpoint but valu- 
able in its treatment of causes of disease and the need of isolation in cases 
of contagion. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 95 

Mott: Contagious Diseases in School. Proceedings of the 
National Educational Association. Chicago, 1898. 

An excellent, practical paper on the subject. 

Royce : Mental Defect and Disorder from Teacher's Point 
of View. Educational Review, vol. vi, pp. 209 f., 322 f., 
and 449 f. 

Will help teachers to see the relation between mental defects and nervous 
disorders. 

Hoyt : Some Observations made in Lansing, Michigan, Public 
Schools . Transactions of Illinois Society for Child-Study, 
vol. ii, No. 2, p. 60. 

An example of what should be done in every school. 

Krohn : Nervous Diseases of School Children. Child-Study 
Monthly, vol. i, p. 354. 

Brief but helpful to teachers. 

Olson : Cigarette Evil and the Schools. Child-Study Monthly, 
vol. iii, p. 8. 

A useful article. 

Habits of Posture and Movement 

Lauder-Brunton : On Posture and Its Indications. Popular 
Scietice Monthly, vol. xlii, p. 26. 

A practical and interesting study. 

McKenzie : Influence of School Life on the Curvature of the 
Spine. Proceedings of the National Educational Associa- 
tion, p. 939. Chicago, 1898. 

Points out causes of curvature and suggests remedies. Followed by notes 
on the discussion. 

Shaw : Some Observations on Teaching Children to Write. 
Child-Study Monthly, vol. i, p. 226. 

Contains suggestions as to the requisites of posture and desk. 



196 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Mosher : Habitual Postures of School Children. Educational 
Review, vol. iv, p. 339. 

A brief, critical study of nine typical postures. Illustrated. 

Mosher : Hygienic Desks for School Children. Educational 
Review, vol. xviii, p. 9. 

Describes a hygienic form of school desk for reading and writing. 

Bolton: Aimless Activity in Children. Transactions of Illi- 
nois Society for Child-Study, vol. i, No. 2, p. 70. 

Urges the enlistment of the child-activity. 

Tucker: Involuntary Movements. American fournal of Psy- 
chology, vol. viii, p. 394. 

Gives results of experiments to show the kinaesthetic effect of ideas of 
movement. 

Groos : Play of Animals. New York, 1898. 

An interesting and important study of fundamental habits of movement. 

Groos: Play of Man. New York, 1901. 

An important study on lines similar to the preceding. 

Johnson : Play in Physical Education. Proceedi?igs of the 
National Educational Association, p. 948. Chicago, 1898. 

A plea for play. 

[See references under heading, Motor Ability, for additional 
studies of movement.] 

Growth 

Burk : Growth of Children in Height and Weight. American 
Journal of Psychology, vol. ix, p. 253. 

A splendid resume" of studies in this line. 

Porter : Physical Basis of Precocity or Dullness. Transac- 
tions of Academy of Science of St. Louis, vol. vi, p. 161. 

Contains the figures on which Dr. Porter bases his theory. 

Bow ditch : Growth of Children. Report of Board of Health 
of Massachusetts, vol. viii. Boston, 1877. 

An extended study of the height and weight of Boston children, with 
twenty-five tables and fifteen illustrative plates. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 97 

Holmes : Order of Physical Growth in the Child. Transac- 
tions of Illinois Society for Child-Study, vol. ii, No. 2, p. 
201. 

A helpful paper. 

Christopher: The Significance of Infancy in Human Beings. 
Transactions of Illinois Society for Child-Study, vol. ii 5 
No. 2, p. 109. 

A short but interesting study of this phase of growth. 

Adolescence 
Hall : Adolescence. New York, 1904. 

Unavailable at the time this book was written, but a veritable mine of 
data and suggestion of the very first importance. 

Marro: La Puberta. Turin, 1898. 

Best book except the preceding on the subject. Deserves translation. 

Bierent : La Puberte\ Paris, 1896. 

Hardly less valuable than the preceding. Appeared two years earlier. 

Lancaster : The Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence. 
Pedagogical Seminary, vol. v, p. 61. 

An important digest of ordinary physical and mental changes during 
adolescence, derived through returns from syllabi and a study of biography. 

Burnham: The Study of Adolescence. Pedagogical Semi- 
nary, vol. i, p. 174. 

An early and interesting sketch of the scope of the study, with some 
valuable suggestions. 

Clouston: Neuroses of Development. London, 1891. 

Touches abnormal mental conditions and their physical accompaniments 
occurring during the period of puberty and adolescence. 

Hall : The Moral and Religious Training of Children and 
Adolescence. Pedagogical Seminary, vol. i, p. 196. 

Contains important suggestions in this field. 



198 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 
Wagner: Youth. New York, 1893. 

A popular discussion of adolescent tendencies. 

Geddes and Thomson : Evolution of Sex. London, 1890. 

Treats sex development in animals and man scientifically. 

Barnes : Feelings and Ideas of Sex in Children. Pedagogical 
Semi?iary, vol. ii, p. 199. 

Suggests subjects for investigation and methods of studying this topic. 

Krohn: Menstrual Disorders in School Girls. Child-Study 
Monthly, vol. iii, p. 270. 

Shows effects of ignorance on health. 

The following books are to be recommended for the 
delicacy and tact with which sex information is imparted : 

Allen : Almost a Man. Wood-Allen Publishing Company, 
1895. Price, 25 cents. [Excellent] 

Stall : What a Young Boy ought to Know. Vir Publishing 
Company, Philadelphia, 1897. Price, $1.00. 

Warren: Almost Fourteen. Dodd, Mead & Co., 1893. 
Price, $1.00. 

Wilder : What Young People should Know. Estes & Lauriat, 
Boston, 1875. Price, $1.50. [This book is adapted to 
the use of adults rather than children. It is both techni- 
cal and outspoken.] 



School Conditions affecting the Child's Physical 

Nature 

The most complete and valuable material on this sub- 
ject, as well as on the general scope of this book, has been 
found in the following classics on school hygiene. They 
are standard German works. The first and third are best 
equipped with bibliographies. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 99 

Burgerstein and Netolitzsky: Handbuch der Schulhygiene. 

Jena, 1895. 
Eulenburg and Bach : Schulgesundheitslehre. Berlin, Second 

Edition, 1900. 
Baginsky : Handbuch der Schulhygiene. Berlin, 1883. Third 

Edition, 1903. 
Shaw: School Hygiene. New York, 1902. 

A very practical and useful book which should be read by architect, 
teacher, and school board. 

Kotelman: School Hygiene. Syracuse, 1899. Translated 
by Bergstrom and Conradi. 

Best we had in our language until Shaw's appeared. 

Burnham : Outlines of School Hygiene. Pedagogical Semi- 
nary, vol. ii, p. 9. 

A splendid, scientific digest of material in this line. 

Newsholme: School Hygiene. Boston, 1889. 

Until recently the best published here. 

Lincoln : School and Industrial Hygiene. Philadelphia, 1880. 

A pioneer work in this line. 

Burnham : Bibliography of School Hygiene. Proceedings of 
National Educational Association,^. 505. Chicago, 1898. 

Important. Contains 436 titles. 

Lincoln : Essentials of School Hygiene. Transactions of Illi- 
nois Society for Child-Study, vol. i, No. 3, p. 53. 

A valuable outline in practical and popular form. 

Carroll : Physical Conditions in Education. Education, vol. 
xviii, p. 451. 

Advocates deeper recognition of the necessity of securing action. 

Fitz : Hygiene of Instruction. Proceedings of National Edu- 
cational Association, p. 544. Chicago, 1898. 

Contains a brief discussion of this topic. 



200 THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD 

Patrick: Should Children under Ten Learn to Read and 
Write? Popular Science Monthly, vol. lxiv, p. 382. 

A plea for activity and the study of nature. 

Mead: The Child and his Environment. Transactions of Illi- 
nois Society for Child-Study, vol. iii, p. 1. 

Advocates the use of the real and natural as opposed to the forced or 
symbolic for educational purposes. 

Harris : Preliminary Report on School Hygiene. Educational 
Review, vol. xviii, p. 1. 

Points out most common mistakes in seating, ventilation, light, and heating. 

Rowe: The School and the Child's Physical Development. 
Proceedings of National Educational Association, As- 
bury Park, 1905. 

A recent study of neglected phases of the hygiene of instruction. 

Home Conditions 
Rankin: Hygiene of Childhood. New York, 1890. 

An excellent handbook, showing the necessity and conditions of good 
physical development. 

Richardson: The Common Health. London, 1887. 

Offers remedies for some of the more insidious but flagrant violations of 
health laws. 

Richardson: Diseases of Modern Life. New York, 1889. 

A practical treatment of diseases and their causes, giving valuable sug- 
gestions for the discovery of unfavorable conditions. 

Warner: Study of Children. New York, 1897. 

Tells what to observe, and supplies means of making a more exact study 
and classification of children. 

Gsrman Imperial Bureau of Health : Gesundheitsblichlein. 
Berlin, 1894. 

A practical manual of health. 



INDEX 



Abdomen, 101, ill. 
Abnormal fatigue, 71, 77. 
Absolute pitch, 35. 
Accent, 53. 

Accommodativeness of eye, 19. 
Accuracy, 47, 63. 
Acoumeter, 27, 30. 
Activity, in, 114. 120, 142, 145, 

165. 
Adding, 79. 
Adenoid growths, 25. 
Adolescence, 6, 62, 105, Chap. XII, 

115 ff., 129, 141, 167. 
Adolescents, 134. 
^sthesiometer, 79. 
Affectations, 141. 
Afternoon, 81. 

Air, 103, 148, 149, 151, 152, 166, 
178, 179, 187. See Ventilation. 
Air conduction, 31. 

Alabama, 57. 

Alcoholism, 184. 

Alternation of work, 80. 

Ambition, 71, 144. 

Ambitions, 141, 145. 

Amount of light, 157. 

Anti-tobacco Club, 90. 

Anxiety, 180. 

Apparatus, 27, 66. 

Arbitrariness, 67, 163, 167. 

Areas, 148. 

Arithmetic, 168, 170, 172; prob- 
lems, 80. 

Arm, 98, 101 ; movement of, 107. 



Arrested speech development, 53, 

54- 
Arteries, 106, 140. 
Articulation, 61. 

Artificial, feeding, 118; light, 158. 
Associates, 137. 
Astigmatism, 16, 19. 
Atkinson, 134. 
Attitudes of mind, 94. 
Average, 5, 85, 101, 116. 
Average record, 50. 
Averages, 9, 51, ioi, 126. 
Awkwardness, 47, 50. 



B 



Back, 95, 97, 98, 101, in. 

Bad air, 62. 

Bad eyes, 89. 

Baker's bread, 118. 

Balance, 65, 95, 111 ff- 

Bathing, 134, I35> I 37. *75> J 7 8 . 

186. 
Baths, 76. 
Bed, 179. 
Beebe, 44. 
Bellows, 152. 
Bells, 164. 

Bibliography, 138, 188. 
Bicycle, 134 ; pump, 152. 
Blackboard, 2, 10, ax, 155. IS 6 . 

157, 165 ; curtains, 156. 
Blood supply to brain, 107. 
Blundering, 50. 
Board of Health, 160. 
Boas, 124. 



201 



202 



INDEX 



Bodily positions, 75. 
Body, growth of, 116 ff. ; move- 
ment of, 113. 
Bone conduction, 31. 
Books, 137, 158, 180. 
Boston, 124, 125. 
Bowditch, Dr., 126. 
Bowels, 180. 
Boxing ear, 120. 
Boys and girls, 129. 
Brace, Julia, 39. 
Brain, 107, 187. 
Breathing, 60, 103 ff. 
Breathing by mouth, 26. 
Breathing hampered, 93. 
Bright light, 157. 
Brightness, 115, 116. 
Bronchitis, 89. 
Bryan, 129. 



Caesar, 5. 

Carbonic acid gas, 151. 

Cardinal symptoms of fatigue, 76. 

Care, 58, 72, 99, 116 ; of skin, 177, 

186. 
Careful sweeping and dusting, 

159. 

Carotid arteries, 106. 

Catarrh, 26, 89, 181, 186. 

Causes of bad eyes, 9 ; bad hear- 
ing, 25 ; defective growth, 117 ff., 
122 ; defective motor ability, 45 ; 
fatigue, 71 ; nervousness, 62. 

Cellar, 152, 159, 178. 

Centers, of correlation, 54; of 
speech, 54. 

Cerebellum, 45, 46, 54. 

Cerebral centers, 142. 

Certificate, 14. 

Chair, 98. 

Character, 108, 112. 

Chest, 95, 98, 99, 101, 102, in, 178 ; 
girth of, 116 ; well filled, 61. 

Chicago, 83, 90. 

Child labor, 121, 122. 



Children's plays, 47. 
Child-study, 1, 8, 23, 34, 53, 54, 

120, 183. 
Chloride of lime, 88, 153, 154. 
Cholera, 87. 
Chopped straw, 88. 
Chorea, 65, 73, 89, 107. 
Choroidal disease, 10. 
Cigar, 106. 

Cigarettes, 89, 91, 106. 
Cigarette smoking, 9, 21, 89. 
Circulation, 83, 91, 93, 103. 
City boy, 120. 
Clark University, 131. 
Class, 68, 69. 
Cleanliness, 158. 
Clearchus, 141. 
Closets, 87. 
Clothing, 87, 91, 117 ff., 134, 137, 

15°. 175. *77, 186, 187. 
Color-blindness, 20 ff. 
Committee of Ten, 173. 
Common drinking cup and towels, 

89. 
Common-sense methods, 4. 
Comparison of growth, 115. 
Conditions, 3 ; home and school, 

146, 175- 
Confessions, 25. 
Confidence, 55. 
Confinement, 170. 
Confusion, 60, 71, 166. 
Consequences, 10. 
Conservatives, 42, 97. 
Constipation, 89. 
Contagion, 85, 159, 160. 
Contagious diseases, 87, 159. 
Conversation, 96, 100. 
Conversions, 141. 
Copying, 79. 
Correlation, 166. 
Country boy, 120. 
Courage, 95. 
Cracks of floor, 153. 
Cure, 61. 
Cure of defective motor ability, 85. 



INDEX 



203 



Current news, 173. 
Curriculum, 167, 170, 173. 
Curtains, 11, 22, 156, 157. 
Curvature of spine, 98. 
Custom, 113. 

D 

Dampness, 148. 
Dark days, 158. 

Dark rings under the eyes, 137. 
Dates, 172. 

Dazzling reflections, 157. 
Deafness, 25, 34, 181. 
Death-rate, 83. 
Defective ears, 23. 
Deformity, 45, 54. 
Design of book, 4. 
Desire to be alone, 137. 
Desk, 68, 155. 
Desks, 97, 98, 99, 155. 
Development, 44, 58, 60, 72, 101, 
107, 113, 116, 121, 123, 126, 132, 

143. 

Deviations in height and in girth 
of chest, 128. 

Dictation, 79. 

Difficulty in detecting cases of de- 
fect, 54 ; with school work, 62. 

Digestive organs, 186. 

Dignity, 141. 

Dimensions, 151. 

Diphtheria, 85, 86, 87, 160. 

Directions for tests of vision, 14 ff. 

Dirt, 153. 

Discharge of ear, 181. 

Discharges, 25 ; from nose, 87. 

Discouragement, 46. 

Disease, 6, 9, 21, 25, 44, 45, 62, 71, 
72, 73, Chap. IX, 83 ff., 85, 86, 
88, 91, 116 ff., 119 ff., 122, 130, 144, 
153, 154, 160, 187. 

Disease of organs of speech, 54. 

Disposition, 84. 

Diversion, 69. 

Diving, 25, 26. 



Draughts, 104, 151. 
Drawing, 40, 81, 168, 173. 
Drawing lines, 49. 
Dread stories, 71. 
Dream life, 142. 
Dreams, 71. 
Dressing rooms, 153, 
Drill, 113. 

Drinking fountains, 159. 
Drinking water, 87, 148. 
Drowsiness, 151. 
Dullness, 26, 142. 
Dust, 89, 153. 
Dusting, 88. 



Ear, 23 ff. 

Ears, 23 ff., 181. 

Effort, 45, 52, 67, 91, 95, 164, 170. 

Elongation of the vocal cords, 138. 

Emotion, 43. 

Encouragement, 44, 45, 51. 

Energy, 47, 70, 77, 81, in, 142, 

145- 
English, 53, 181. 
Enlarged tonsils, 25. 
Enlargement of the larynx, 138. 
Enthusiasm, 73. 
Enthusiasms, 144. 
Enunciation, Chap. VI, 3, 52. 
Environment, 118, 122, 146. 
Epilepsy, 66. 
Ergograph, 78. 
Eulenberg, 154. 
Eustachian tubes, 25. 
Examination, 10, 80. 
Examinations, 163, 164. 
Examinations of classes, 6. 
Exceptions, 101, 181. 
Excitement, 180. 
Exercise, 134, 137, 144, 166, 175, 

179, 187. 
Exhaustion, 78. 
Experience, 168. 
Experiment, 168. 
Experimenters, 79. 



204 



INDEX 



Expression, 108, 114, 171. 
Expressive movement, 105, 107. 
Extend the arm, 49. 
Eyes, 68, 75, 99. 
Eyesight, 8 ff. 



Face, 107 ff., no; flushed, 86. 

Facts, 172. 

Fans, 149. 

Far-sighted eye, 9. 

Far-sightedness, 19. 

Fatigue, 29, 45, 62, 68, 69, Chap. 
VIII, 70 ff., 73, jj, 82, 84, 91, 
98, 144, 145, 151, 155, 169. 

Fatigue in school children, 74. 

Fear of sex disease, 132 ; of teacher, 

Feeling, 171. 

Feelings, 142. 

Feet, 155. 

Feet and posture, 98, 103. 

Feet, movement of, 107. 

Fever, 54. 

Fidgeting, 95. 

Fifth nerve, 106. 

Figures, 172. 

Fine muscles, 163, 165. 

Fine needlework, 165. 

Fine work, 46. 

Finger muscles, 49, no. 

Fingers, 75, 165. 

First school year, 169. 

Five-hour session, 170. 

Floor, n, 96, 98, 155, 178. 

Floors, 153. 

Folding desk top, 98. 

Food, 84, 91 ff, 175, 177, 179, 186, 

187. 
Foods, 134. 
Foolish modesty, 130. 
Forced ventilation, 149, 150. 
Force or weakness, 47. 
Forehead, 74. 
Foreign languages, 81, 168. 



Foreign parentage, 53. 

Foul air, 39, 86. 

Free, but soiled text-books, 158. 

Free dispensaries, 162. 

Freedom, 165, 166. 

French girl, 46. 

Furnace, 150. 

Furniture, 88, 153, 178. 



Gait, no ff, 181. 

Game, 68. 

Games, 37, 39, 48, 50, 181. 

General overwork, 100. 

Gentleness, 47. 

Geography, 168, 173. 

Germany, 119. 

Germs, 87, 88, 89. 

Gilbert, 129. 

Girls and boys, 167. 

Girth of chest, 116, 123, 127, 

128. 
Grace, 51. 
Gracefulness, 47. 
Grammar, 172; schools, 135. 
Gray, 5. 
Griesbach, 79. 
Growing more nervous, 63. 
Growing season, 129. 
Growth, 68, 123, Chap. XII, 115 ff, 

132, 145 ; during adolescence, 

138 ; of the beard, 138. 
Gum-chewing, 106. 
Gustatory branch of fifth nerve, 

106. 
Gymnastic exercises, 60. 
Gymnastics, 168. 



H 



Habit, 6, 14, 26, 52, 60. 61, 93, 
95, 101, 106, 108, 130, 180, 185, 
187. 

Habits, 53, 71, 93, 105, 113, 131 ; 
of movement, Chap. XI, 105 ff, 



INDEX 



205 



113 ; of posture, Chap. X, 93 ff. ; 

of speech, 53. 
Habitual modes of thought, 94, 

100, 108 ; occupations, 99. 
Hall, G. Stanley, 124. 
Handkerchiefs, 89. 
Hands, 101 ; blue and cold, 101 ; 

position of, 95. 
Hardening the child, 187. 
Hard-working student or farmer, 

99. 
Harmony, 34. 
Hartwell, Dr., 60. 
Headache, 8 ff., 14. 
Headaches, 89. 
Head, movement of, 107 ; posture 

of, 95-98, 101 ff., III. 
Health, 6, 91, 93, 107, 131, 161; 

officer, 160; recorder, 147. 
Hearing, Chap. Ill, 23 ff., 83. 
Heart, 103, 104, 129, 142, 187. 
Heat, 150. 
Heating, 149. 
Height, 123, 128, 129, 130; of 

children, 115, 117. 
Heredity, 62, 140. 
High School, 135. 
History, 168, 172, 173; stories, 170. 
Hobbies, 144. 
Holmes, Dr. Bayard, 117. 
Home, jy, in, 121, 176; condi- 
tions, 175 ; conditions affecting 

the child's physical nature, 

Chap. XIV, 175. 
Homer, 5. 
Hot a ; r, 149, 150. 
Howe, 39. 
Hygiene, 2, 122, 171, 175, 182, 184 ; 

of voice, 174. 
Hygrometer, 151. 
Hypermetropia, 19. 
Hypermetropic eye, 9. 
Hysteria, 66. 



Ideals, 135, 141, 144, 145. 



Ideas, 43, 108, 114. 

Imitating baby talk, 52. 

Imitation, 113. 

Impatience, 67. 

Impure air, 89. 

Impurity of air, 152. 

Inability to meet the teacher's eye, 

137- 

Inaction, 2, 58. 

Inadequate food, 91, 122. 

Inattention, 26. 

Indigestion, 89, 176. 

Indiscriminate punishment, 120. 

Individual, 67, 69, 184. 

Individuals, 36, 167. 

Individual children, 51, 67, 68, 80; 
peculiarities, 158. 

Individuality, 175. 

Infancy, 118. 

Infection, 15, 86, 87. 

Influences, harmful, 126. 

Injuries, 118, 130. 

Injustice, 46. 

Insistent ideas, jj. 

Inspection of cellar and water- 
supply, 159. 

Instinct, 106; of imitation, 56. 

Intensity of adolescent life, 141. 

Interest, 67, 78, 164. 

Interests, 135. 

Interruptions to growth, 117. 

Involuntary movement, 105, 107. 

Iron-clad system, 163. 



James, William, 95. 
Japanese, 118. 



K 



Keen-sightedness, 19. 

Keeping children after school, 166. 

Kemsies, 81, 168. 

Kidneys, 186. 

Kindergarten, 165. 



206 



INDEX 



Knee, 96, 103. 
Knowledge, 171. 



Lack of consideration, 67 ; of hygi- 
enic conditions at home, 45 ; of 
proper food, 71 ; of sleep, 62. 

Lamp, 12, 180. 

Lancaster, 132. 

Language, 52, 168. 

Lateral curvature of spine, 98. 

Learning by heart, 81. 

Legs, 107, 178. 

Letters, 13. 

Light, 9, 11, 148, 156, 180. 

Lime water, 152. 

Literature, 171. 

Liver, 104. 

Lower grades, 11, 42. 

Lunch, 91. 

Lunches, 177. 

Lungs, 83, 187. 



M 



Macaulay's History of Engla?id, 

172. 
Manual exercise, 170. 
Manual labor, 81. 
Manual training, 40, 173. 
Maps, 155. 
Marey, 106. 
Marking system, 163. 
Marks, 163, 164, 165. 
Marro, 133. 

Mass. Asylum for Blind, 39. 
Mastication, 106. 
Mathematics, 81, 168. 
Matter and mind, 102. 
Measles, 25, 26, 89, 161, 181. 
Measurements, 101, 123. 
Membranous croup, 160. 
Memory of figures, 79 ; of sound, 

29. 
Menstrual period, 134. 
Menstruation, 138. 



Mental correlatives, 94. 

Mental defect, 102; environment 

134- 135- 

Mental relaxation, 100. 

Michigan, 85. 

Middle ear, 25. 

Military training, 113. 

Milton, 5. 

Milwaukee, 124, 125. 

Mind, 112, 113, 116, 121 

Mind and matter, 102. 

Minnesota State Normal School 
at Mankato, 92. 

Minus distance, 97. 

Modern method, 42. 

Moisture, 150. 

Monday as a working day, 81. 

Monthly periods, 135. 

Moping posture, 95. 

Morality, 113. 

Morals, 131. 

Morbid egoism, 144. 

Morning, 81. 

Morning work, 169. 

Morphine, 184. 

Mother, 6. 

Mother tongue, 168. 

Motor ability, Chap. V, 42 ff., 48, 
51, 105; control, 140; equip- 
ment, 6. 

Mouth breathing, 187. 

Mouth open, 26. 

Movement, 47, 48, 102, 105, 108 ff. 

Movements, 75, 126; habits of, 
Chap. XI, 105 ff. 

Multiplying, 79. 

Mumps, 89. 

Muscles, 43, 59, 60, 73, 89, 107, 
no, 163, 165. 

Muscular sense, 40. 

Music, 174. 

Myopia, 9, 19, 159. 

N 

Nagging, 67, 163. 
Nasal catarrh, 25. 



INDEX 



207 



Natural history, 168. 

Natural science, 170. 

Nature study, 173. 

Near-sightedness, 19. 

Neck, 178. 

Nervous children, 62, 63; disor- 
ders, 60. 

Nervousness, Chap. VII, 62 ff., 
68, 89 ff., 137, 155. 176. 

Nervousness in teacher, 62. 

Nervous system, 60, 70, 71, 116, 
176. 

Neuroses, 66. 

New England conscience, 76. 

Normal child, 6. 

Normal children, 6. 

Normal distance for hearing, 31, 

33 ' 
Normal height and weight, 115. 

Normal increase in height and 

weight, 115. 

Nose, 178. 

Nutrition, 116, 118, 120, 133, 134, 

.37. Q 

Oakland, 124. 

Obedience, 113, 164. 

Observations, 112. 

Odor, 151. 

Odors, 39, 152, 153. 

One session and two session plan, 

169. 
Opaque glass, 157. 
Oratory, 108. 
Organic matter, 151. 
Out-buildings, 149. 
Outward form and inner content 

"3- 

Overcoat, 178, 186. 
Overpressure, 71, 163. 
Over-stimulating environments 

122. 
Over-stimulation, 118, 120. 



Pain in ear, 26. 



Pale children, 90. 

Pallor, 91, 176, 186. 

Paper, 13. 

Paralysis, 73. 

Parent, 72, 77, 92. 

Parents, 84, 115, 135, 137, 147, 17 6 . 

178, 182, 183, 185. 
Passion, 95. 
Passivity, 164. 
Pathological fatigue, 71. 
Patrick, 171. 
Peckham, 126. 

Percentage, 83 ; of cases of incura- 
ble ear defect, 25; of children 
with defective sight, 8 ; of color- 
blindness, 20; of death, 119; 
of defective hearing, 23. 
Permanent fatigue, 71, 72, 82. 
Persistence, 47. 
Phonation, 61. 
Phrenologist, 108. 
Physical culture, 51, 108, 112, 168, 

169. 
Physical health, 48. 
Physical and mental relaxation, 

100. 
Physical nature, 146, 175. 
Physician, 137, 160, 184, 185. 
Physicians, 122, 136, 154. 
Physiology, 170, 171. 
Pica, 12 ff., 158. 
Play, 47, 90, 112, 164, 179. 
Plays, 48. 
Playground, 112. 
Playmates, 44. 
Plumbing, 178. 
Porter, 126. 
Position, 108. 

Position in testing hearing, 28, 29. 
Position of light, 11. 
Positions of the curtains, 158. 
Possibility of cure of deafness, 25. 
Posture, habits of, Chap. X, 2, 89, 
93; and movement, 108; sit- 
ting, 2; standing, 2, 102; in 
sleep, 104. 



208 



INDEX 



Postures, 181. 

Pounding with heel, 141. 

Power of concentration, 100 ; of 

discrimination, 36. 
Practical hints, 4. 
Practicality, 80; of tests, 46, 66. 
Practice, 38, 42, 45, 56, 60, 78, 79. 
Practice and theory, 5. 
Precision, 51. 
Pressing the eyes, 106. 
Pressure, 66, 89. 
Principles, 56. 
Print, 9, 12, 180. 
Problem, r. 

Professional training, 122. 
Progress, 2. 

Pronunciation, 53, 55, 60. 
Psychology, 170. 
Puberty, 141, 143. 
Pulling the ears, 74. 
Pulling the mustache, 106. 
Pulse-beat, 79, 84. 
Punishment, 166. 
Punishments, 163. 
Pupil of eye, 74. 



Queen's test of vision, 16, 19. 
Questions, 1 ff., 46, 84, 91, 101, 

113, 119, 136, 145, 163, 176, 182, 

183, 185, 186. 
Quickness, 51; of reaction, 48; 

of movement, 47. 
Quintilian, 108. 



Racial influence in height, 118. 

Rage, 95. 

Rankin, 185. 

Reading, 96, 99, 170, 171, 180; of 

extracts, 79 ; in bed, 12. 
Reason, 106. 

Recess, 47, 68, 91, 166, 169. 
Reclining position, 104. 



Record for health, 7, 84, 119. 
Records, 8, 17, 31, 158. 
Recreation, 48, 81, 112, 163, 165, 

169, 175- 
Recreations, 145. 
Recuperation, 70, 72. 
Red or swollen eyelids, 14. 
Reduced nerve force, 70. 
Reflex movement, 105. 
Regularity of growth, 115. 
Relaxation, 69, 100. 
Religion, 168. 
Repression, 45, 175. 
Respiratory muscles, 59, 60. 
Rest, 81, 116. 
Restlessness, 7, 68, 145. 
Restraint, 89, 118, 120, 122, 165. 
Restrictions, 163, 164. 
Results, 4, 8, 17, 29, 33, 55, 78, 

104, 118. 
Retardation in physical growth, 

126. 
Review, 164. 
Rickets, 89. 
Ridicule, 44. 
Roaming, 143. 

Roughness and smoothness, 37. 
Routine, 164. 
Rubbing eyes, 9. 
Rubbing the forehead, 106. 
Running of ear, 26. 



Sagging thumbs, 64. 

Salivary glands, 107. 

Saxony, 119. 

Scalp, 107. 

Scarlet fever, 25, 26, 85, 86, 160, 
181. 

School, 121; books, 13; build- 
ings, 147; conditions, 139, 146; 
conditions affecting the child's 
physical nature, Chap. XIII, 
146 ff. ; curriculum, 167, 170 ; en- 
vironment, 5 ; hygiene, 7, 146, 



INDEX 



209 



149; programme, 167; -room, 
148, 149, 152, 153 ; -room, light 
of, 11 ff. ; -room method, 162; 
system, 164; work, 10; yard, 
153 ; physician, 66, 88, 161, 162, 
176. 

Science, 5, 109. 

Scientific tests, 32, 77; investiga- 
tions, 4. 

Scientists, 77, 82. 

Scoliosis, 154. 

Scratching head, 106. 

Scurlock, H. H M 54. 

Seat, 155. 

Seats, 21, 96, 99, 155, 156. 

Sedentary occupation, 89. 

Self-activity, 42, 43, 44. 

Self-consciousness, 58, 61, 108, 140. 

Self-expression, 42, 47, 48. 

Sense, 6 ; knowledge, 6. 

Sensibility, 140. 

Sensitiveness, 140. 

Sewerage, 152. 

Sewing, 165. 

Sex, 116, 130, 136; hygiene, 131, 
132, 135. 

Shades, 12. 

Shaw, E. R., 98. 

Sheet of metal, 151. 

Shelley, 5. 

Shocks, 62. 

Shoes, 178. 

Short lesson period, 80. 

Shrill screaming, 174. 

Shoulder, 95, 98, 101, 104, 107, 
in. 

Shoulders, 178. 

Sight, Chap. II, 8 ff., 83, 140, 
156. 

Signals, 164. 

Singing, 81, 168. 

Sisson, 47. 

Site, 147. 

Sitting, 89, 96, 181. 

Skin, 140; diseases, 89. 

Slate, 155. 



Sleep, 71, 75, 81, 84, 91, 103 ff., 
179, 181, 187. 

Sleeping exercise, 68. 

Sliding cover of desk, 98. 

Slipping down in seat, 99. 

Sloping blackboard, 165. 

Slums, 8. 

Small pica, 13. 

Small-pox, 87, 160. 

Smell, 38, 140, 152, 153. 

Smells, 148. 

Smith, William Hawley, 94. 

Snellen's test-types, 15, 18. 

Snuff, 107. 

Solitude, 140, 143. 

Solutions, 38. 

Sound, 35, 56; values, 30. 

Spasm, 60. 

Sphygmometer, 78. 

Spinal curvature, 134, 154; dis- 
eases, 89. 

Spine, 93, 95, 98, 99. 

Spontaneous movement, 105. 

Sports, 112. 

Sprinkling the floors, 88. 

Stammering, 58, 59. 

Standing, 100; water, 147. 

Stanford University, 131. 

State of flutter, 61. 

Stimulation, 175. 

Stimulus to work, 44. 

St. Louis, 124, 125, 127, 128. 

Stomach, 84, 93, 99, 104. 

Strain, 2, 8, 10, 13, 66, 91, 144, 145, 
170, 174; of eyes, 2, 8, 10, 13; 
of muscles of back, 97. 

Straw, 153. 

Strength, 6, 91, 111, 187. 

Stroking the beard, 106. 

Stubbornness, 85. 

Studies in education, 17. 

Study, 99. 

Study neglected, 2. 

Stupidity, 50, 85, 90, 137, 151. 

Stuttering, 58, 59. 

St. Vitus dance, 66. 



2IO 



INDEX 



Suggestions, 59. 

Sunlight, 12, 148. 

Supervisor, 77, 169, 182. 

Suppuration, 14. 

Surface of seat, 96. 

Swamp, 147. 

Swaying motion of body, 64. 

Sweeping, 88, 159. 

Symptoms of ear trouble, 26, 31 

eye trouble, 14; fatigue, 74. 
Symmetry, 65, 95, 98, hi. 



Table A, for average height of 
children, 124. 

Table B, for average weight of 
children, 125. 

Table C, for average girth of chest, 
126. 

Table D, for average deviations 
in height and girth of chest, 127. 

Tact, 7. 

Tapping, the nose, 106 ; with the 
lead pencil, 49. 

Taste, 37, 140. 

Teacher of experience, 4. 

Tea tasters, 37. 

Temperature, 150. 

Temperature sense, 40. 

Temporary fatigue, 71, j^- 

Testing fatigue, 74 ; hearing, 27 ff. ; 
sight, 14 ff. 

Test of chorea, 65 ; of growth, 123 ; 
of habits of movement, 109 ; of 
hearing, 26 ff. ; of involuntary 
movement, 107 ; of light, 148 ; 
of motor ability, 46 ff. ; of mus- 
cular sense, 39 ; of nervousness, 
64 ; of smell, 39 ; of taste, 38 ; of 
temperature, 40 ; of touch, 37. 

Test questions, 145 ; of sex, 136. 

Tests, 147. 

Tests of fatigue, 74 ; made through 
play, 46. 

The average, 84. 



The best, 46, 51. 

The normal individual, 141. 

Theory, 42. 

Theory and practice, 5. 

The real child, 47. 

Thermometer, 40, 150, 151. 

Thick lips, 101. 

Thin and pale children, 90. 

Three-hour session, 169. 

Throat, 58. 

Throat, sore, 86. 

Tight lacing, 134. 

Tight neckwear, 9. 

Timbre, 34. 

Tissues, 73. 

Tobacco, 62, 90, 180. 

Toil, 116, 121. 

Tone, 34. 

Tongue, 75. 

Tonsils, enlarged, 25. 

Toronto, 124. 

Touch, 36. 

Touch dividers, 79. 

Towels, 89, 159. 

Training, 44, 58, 113, 122, 143; in 

color perception, 21. 
Truancy, 143. 
Tuberculosis, 88, 89. 
Tuesday, importance of, for school 

work, 81. 
Tuning-fork test, 31. 
Twitching fingers, 64. 
Type, 3, 13, 158. 
Typhoid fever, 87, 161. 
Typhus fever, 160. 

U 

Uncleanliness, 45. 
Underclothing, 177. 
Under-stimulating environment, 

122. 
Under-stimulation, 118, 120. 
Unhealthy home conditions, 9, 62, 

71. 175- 
Unhygienic conditions of home, 
9, 62, 71, 175. 



INDEX 



211 



Unslaked lime, 152. 
Unsuitable food, 62. 
Upper grades, 9. 



Vacations, 81. 

Vaccination, 87. 

Variation, 6, 9. 

Ventilation, 88, 149, 159. 

Vertebral arteries, 107. 

Vertical lines, 50. 

Vertical writing, T71. 

Violations of hygienic laws, 147. 

Vitiated air, 88. 

Vocabulary, 55. 

Vocal organs, 55. 

Voice, 35. 

Voluntary movement, 105. 

Vulgarity, 101. 

W 

Walking, 108, no. 
Walls, 156. 
Washing, 181. 
Watch-test, 27, 33. 
Water, 148, 152; pans, 150; sup- 
ply. *59- 



Water-closets, 152. 

Watering of eyes, 14. 

Weakness, 101, 180. 

Weariness, 70, 99. 

Wednesday as a half-holiday, 81. 

Weight, 115, 117, 123, 129; of 
children, 115, 117. 

Wells, 87, 149. 

Wet clothes and umbrellas, 153. 

Wet feet, 178. 

Whisper test, 27, 30, 33. 

Whistling, 95. 

Width of seat, 96. 

Window, 11 ; space, 156 ; ventila- 
tion, 151. 

Windows, 150, 153, 156. 

Woolen, 177. 

Worcester, 124. 

Work, 134, 135. 

Worry, 67, 89, 166, 172, 181. 

Wrist, 49. 

Writing, 89, 96, 98, 165, 170, 17 J, 

Writing Greek paradigms, 79. 

Written test, 10. 



Yelling in ears, 26. 
Yellow fever, 87. 



The Meaning of Education 

WITH OTHER ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES 

BY 

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 

Columbia University 

Cloth. i2mo. $1.00 

HAMILTON W. MABIE 

"I do not recall any recent discussion of educational 
questions which has seemed to me so adequate in knowl- 
edge and so full of genuine insight. I like the frankness, 
the honesty, and the courage of the papers immensely." 

State Supt. CHARLES R. SKINNER, Albany, N. Y. 

" A volume which will be eagerly sought and thoroughly 
enjoyed. It is clear, strong, and wholesome." 

REVIEW OF REVIEWS 

" We are sure that the teachers of the country will be glad 
to have these articles and addresses brought together in a 
single volume. On all that pertains to the science of edu- 
cation, no writer more readily commands assent than Dr. 
Butler." 

DETROIT FREE PRESS 

" Dr. Butler's unfoldment of his views and theories is 
marked by clearness of statement, a lucid style, and deep 
thoughtfulness and logic. The book is suggestive and 
inspiring." 

THE SENTINEL (Milwaukee) 

" Professor Butler's book is rife with ideas and suggestions 
which will render it valuable to all thoughtful people, and 
these are lucidly presented and urged in a most persuasive 
way." _____ 

PUBLISHED BY 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 FIFTH AVEHUE, NEW YORK 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE CHILD 



BY 



NATHAN OPPENHEIM 

Attending Physician to the Children's Department of 
Mt. Sinai Hospital Dispensary 



i2tno. Cloth. $1.25, net 



Journal of Education 

"This is an exceedingly helpful book. It is a book with 
a mission for mankind. The author has a great purpose, 
and his treatment is both scholarly and original." 

Child Study Monthly 

" This is one of the best child-study books that has ever 
appeared. It deals with facts that come from the closest 
observation and careful laboratory and clinical research." 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



c r8 S3 1906 



